Shtandart..

Shtandart [clicky]

Much overdue, but I've been busy..  

At a recent visit to the Southampton Boat Show I was much taken with this beauty.. 

The frigate ‘Shtandart’ is a full-size replica of the flagship of the first Russian Baltic fleet built in 1999. There were no plans so they used naval historian, Victor Krainyukov, who had been commissioned in 1987 by the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg to find out everything possible about the ship.

After extensive research in the archives and records for multiple nations, and with the discovery of an 18th Century which showed the Shtandart in action, they had enough to go on to rebuild the ship. She's made in larch and is stunning..  the web site [clicky] has some shots of her under full sail that are superb..

Stunning..

El-Mellah

The sail training Ship El-Mellah (meaning sailor in Arabic) owned by the Algerian Navy was in Portsmouth the other evening just as I happened to be going over to Gosport with the Jolly Boys (Beer Chapter) for a few beers at the Fallen Acorn brewery..

...for me, a bit too much superstructure to be considered truly lovely, but she still looked a fine site...  Polish-built, 110 meters long and 14.5 meters wide, the masts are 54 meters above water line, with a crew of 126 sailors and 84 trainees (for this trip), and this is her maiden voyage..  in the background are the (lower) masts of a considerably older square rigger..  

...and there you go..  three square riggers in one shot albeit the Gosport ferry was doing it's level best to block the view of Warrior.. 

Bear with..  there are painted troops ready to be based if I can get the time and they should be the next post..

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race - start....

Bit of a double post this one as it first appeared on the sailing blog (for obvious reasons), but it does also fit here, if only for the quantities of beer drunk on the day, and the historical setting.. 😀

Anyway - those of you who have read this drivel for some time may know that my bother in law works for Robin Knox Johnston's Clipper Round the World Yacht Race organisation [clicky], and as another race has just started, managed to rummage up tickets (again) for the official start which was once again in London, for me, the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer, and my sister..  top bloke!

The boats congregate at St Katherine's Dock, which makes the best starting point for the race that you can possibly think of, with a backdrop of the old East India warehouses, Tower Bridge, and the the Tower of London all competing with the colour of the yachts - it truly is a spectacular sight..

Arranged to meet my sister at the Dean Swift [clicky] beforehand, surely one of the finest pubs in Christendom (certainly one of my top 5 of all time), where over an extended and leisurely lunch (very nice home cooked Scotch egg) I worked my way along the four hand pumps, not a duff one amongst them with only the "Pale Ale" by Redemption not quite hitting the 'exciting' button

The spectator boats were due to go at about 2:30, and unlike last year were leaving from the St. Katherine's side so a brisk walk across Tower Bridge ensued; big crowds watching the yachts which even then were beginning to filter onto the river.

The spectator boats were also smaller than the pretend Mississippi river steamer we were on last time - a huge improvement - the skippers were more adventurous so went much closer to the fleet than last year, they also went further down river as this time we went well beyond the Thames Barrier (a first for me, and a chance to have a close up look).

I love the Thames - so much to see, so many reminders of how stupidly busy it must once have been - the track shows that basically we went the length of what was called the Pool of London - the dry docks are all still there (mostly marina's or residential housing complexes now though) and the warehouses have been turned into accommodation, but how powerful were the East India Company once...?! Astonishing...

...then three hours later (or so) after a hugely entertaining afternoon on the water we wended our way home - a brilliant day..

A GPS track for the return trip follows:

Good luck to the teams in the race..!

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race start - London

My sister and I headed up to the smoke on Saturday, for the start of the Clipper Round the World yacht race [clicky] a brilliant day out as we had tickets for one of the spectator boats courtesy of her husband who works for the race.. the sun shone, huge crowds and the boats looked superb....

We then followed the boats down the river to their last overnight stop at Tilbury before they start the race proper...   the river is an absolute delight, I had no idea there was so much  to see, so much history on view from the days when London was thriving trading port...  docks, dry docks, wharfs, superb very much recommended..  Greenwich looked simply fantastic and I've pencilled that in for a future "I have been to..." (I got lucky with one of the photo's as there was also a Tall Ships event on the same day)

Having enjoyed our time on the water we then took ourselves off to the pub, the Dean Swift [clicky], which was an absolute triumph, and entirely down to my sisters research. A hitherto undiscovered  (by me anyway) gem in the heart of London serving some of the best beer I've seen anywhere, at entirely un-London prices, good food, in a lovely, traditional type beer house... a lot of people enjoying themselves - recommended (a definite 9 out of 10'er)

...and finally the GPS track for a bit of fun ... and no, the spectator boat didn't suddenly sprout wheels, we lost satellite signal a couple of times!

A new blog for a new boat...

So back in January I published four "nice to do" targets ('resolutions' are just too much of an unnecessary stress in a hobby that that should be a break from the rat race...)

...so how are they doing?

1. a little more painting (I want to finish the Pz II and the Pz38T, and then balance the WSS forces with some opposition for Lord North and Greys Regiment) Going great guns on this one - I'm within 20 or 30 points of my 2012 total already....  the tanks were done, along with significant numbers of reinforcements to a number of projects...  long may it continue...
2. the same number of table top games as last year if not one or two more... None so far - not good...
3. new year new look - watch out for a change to the look and feel of the blog in January - I'll also freshen up all the project blogs as I go through the year...... Completed...
4. BUT....   the main priority at least for the first half of the year, is to find a replacement for Papillon [clicky].... also as of this week COMPLETED!!

Welcome to the new boat... a bilge keel Hurley 20 of venerable age, and unsurpassed loveliness....!

Yep - currently known as Tjanna, but I shall (for the first time) be re-naming her....  can't say I'd have done it from choice, but the name doesn't signify anything specific (from what I can tell it's just a slightly unusual girls name), and I don't fancy having to spell it out every time I talk to a marina, or Heaven forbid, the Coast Guard..!

She'll be known as Sparrow - no specific reason other than the wing/flying analogy, they're also small, feisty, it's the same name as Bolitho's first command [clicky] which was always my favourite of the series....  and it's also Captain Jack's surname (and the family wouldn't let me call her Black Pearl)... and anyway I like it....

New blog added to the left.....

Catching up....

Been a few days since the last post so I thought it time to bring the blog up to date... 😀

Much time has been taken in the interim with a fairly important transaction in Steve the Wargamers life...  some of you who have been round here for long enough will know that in those few hours when I'm not thinking about little metal men I also like to sail....

Back in April 2009 [clicky] I bought "Papillon" and since then have had huge amounts of enjoyment sailing here here and there, repairing her (😏), blogging the results [clicky] and generally acting Jack Sparrow....

"Papillon" back in February 2009 when I first bought her...

After four years though, and with huge reluctance, I decided it really was time to move on - so I prepped her for sale and shoved her on eBay, where she sold just over 5 days later......   the money's in the bank, I'll start looking for a new, slightly bigger, one next February with the aim of having a boat ready for the start of next season...  in the meanwhile Pap will stay in the sailing club I'm a member of until next March when her new owner will probably then take her to her new home....   not a dry eye in the house that day.. you do get attached to them...! Either way, that's all taken some time - physical and emotional!

So what else is on the go.....

The second two Zvezda kits are set for completion this evening - the online trader I was buying from didn't have the Opel Blitz trucks I ordered so rather than wait I went for a swap and got a Pz 38T [clicky] and a Pz II [clicky] instead. They were washed in a light detergent last night, the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer is at work this evening, so it seems an opportune time for a little modelling....! I'll post separately when that's done....

Pz 38 (T) & crew in France (June 1940) - superb picture - you can just feel the tiredness of that crew..... courtesy Wikipedia and the Bundesarchiv

Then after that it's time to think about shopping lists as this weekend is Warfare at Reading [clicky] once again though, I don't think I really need that much as my lead piles are largely intact due to a slow painting schedule this year (summer = sailing, so hopefully my output will pick up now winter is here, and the boat sold)....  I'm still enthused by the news from Newline Designs [clicky] of further expansions to their 20mm Sudan range, but I have to say that I'm not overly smitten by the new Dervish casts..  I'll hold fire on making a decision on whether to change the entire Sudan project from 15mm to 20mm until I see a few more in the range... and I'd like to see these in the flesh...

Newline Designs - new Hadendowa from their Sudan Colonial Range

They do have a 25% off  (!) sale though so I may be tempted by some stray bags of American Civil war stuff...!

Other than that, it's basically an opportunity for a damn good mooch., and also time to catch up with DG...  not sure we're going to get a game this time as he's busy..  fingers crossed for Saturday night, where if he can make it it will be finally time to finish the St Michel campaign [clicky] it's only taken us 3 years... 

So now, maybe..

...I can get down to some wargaming....  but... ah.....  only 37 days to launch...... and a shed load of jobs to do on the boat between now and then...  😏

1st Portsea Island Beer festival..

The "Retreat to the Coast" game continues and I have a massive update as soon as I can get my act together to tidy it up and put some lucid thoughts round it... 😀

Life has been a tad more busy than I expected just recently, in a good way I hasten to add, and has delayed the completion of the game - to be honest I'm gagging to get back "at it" but the ability to leave a game up in situ is a huge benefit...

So what's taking up the time? Well since the last update a couple of things - all of Sunday was taken up with family duty's and sailing - the end of the sailing season is fast approaching so I'm getting in as much time on the water as I can to tide me through the long winter months...

All of Saturday though was taken up with a visit to the 1st Portsea Beer festival [click here] which my brother-in-law-in-law (we're married to sisters..) and I cycled to on what must have been one of the most glorious October days I can remember... 35 miles, but well worth it to partake of a large number of local ales - over 50 in fact from a variety of local breweries - some absolute crackers but the venue for the event was particularly impressive - it was held in the Groundlings Theatre which is located in a Grade 2 listed schoolhouse built originally in 1784, so dating back to the Georgian period...

So the story goes, in 1754 a Beneficial Society was created by local man John Shakespear and five colleagues with the aim of supporting each other in times of need. Each member contributed one shilling per month and it was agreed that any spare money collected would be donated to pay for the education of poor children from the local area. The society membership was extended the next year, which in turn allowed the building of the school in 1784.

Downstairs was the class room and upstairs was used by the Society for meetings, concerts and theatrical events.

Apparently the school applied a very disciplinarian attitude to education and there is still a hook in the building, to which originally children were tied to receive punishment by the birch!

Girls were allowed to enrol in 1837, a junior (primary) school was also formed in 1873, but the school had to be closed during WWII (presumably because it's only a couple of hundred yards away from the dockyard) - in fact rumour has it that a Nazi sympathiser used the roof to signal German bombers attacking the dockyard.

The school finally closed in 1962, and re-opened as the theatre in 2010 - and very lively it is as well. A brilliant venue - the festival was in the old meeting room upstairs, a lovely airy room...

Two interesting facts about the building, in 1812, whilst attending a dance in the building, Elizabeth Dickens went into labour and shortly afterwards gave birth to her son ....Charles - you may know him.... also, the man who became the Premier of South Australia 7 times and after whom Ayres Rock was named, Henry Ayres, was a pupil at this school.... oh, and apparently it's haunted by at least 15 ghosts, and a friendly poltergeist..

Not a bad venue for a beer - will definitely be going again next year! 😏

"Stuff"...

Zounds!! Two weeks since the last post.... what the hell is going on... apologies chaps - "plenty" is the answer, but not all of it strictly wargame related (as anyone who visits my boat blog can see!)

So - plenty of action, but all available mental resources are fairly heavily aimed at getting "Papillon" (my boat) ready for the water - with the launch date set for the 21st March and an 'interesting' job list to complete before then (read "long" for interesting), I've been fairly focussed elsewhere...

It's not all been a dead loss however, DG & I continue to battle away at the American Civil war campaign, and having given him a bloody nose in the last engagement, we have now just met at "Waynes Junction" for what may be the deciding action in the campaign (but who knows!)

Last Saturday there was some much needed RnR with the annual/bi-annual (we'd like it to be bi-annual, but I'm not sure the current partners would agree!) pilgrimage to the home of Hop Back beers, the Wyndham Arms in Salisbury... an absolutely excellent day out (as usual), with all the usual culprits present, an astonishing (as in sized) full English breakfast to start the day, and then 6 or 7 pints of Hop Backs finest. We missed the "Winter Lightning" unfortunately, too late this year as it's only available in December, but on this visit I particularly liked their "Brewers Challenge" - a February 'special' brewed with Challenger hops (hence the name) but golden in colour and just packed full of citrusy bitter flavour - heartily recommended. All of this accompanied by large amounts of talking absolute rubbish about a vast range of inconsequential subjects (), much laughter, and not a few games of "Shut the Box" which seems to lend itself to these proceedings like it was purpose made for the job.. which it is...



..a brilliant day out - looking forward to the next one already...

Which brings me to the picture top left - I hadn't meant to do a full review of "Wounds of Honour" as I don't do reviews for all of the books I read - it would get a bit tedious... in this case however, the more I look back on the book, the more I realise how much I enjoyed it, so by way of keeping the review to the left I decided to review it slightly more fully here..

This is the first volume in a series (have you noticed that no one seems to write single books any more!) based on the character Marcus Valerius Aquila, the son of a noted Roman senator, and a member of what was then called the equestrian class (the upper class, ruling types - what would later be called the aristocracy I guess - interesting that the name has horse/cavalry connotations though, it would imply that even in the Roman Empire, the home of the Legions, the cavalry/horsemen was noted as superior in some way).

The book is set in the reign of the Emperor Commodus (he of "Gladiator" notoriety), and a particularly "political" period of the Roman Empire - plots, denouncements, scheming, and an increasingly unpredictable emperor would have meant that Rome at the time would have been an unhealthy place to be a member of the equestrian class, and a senator. So it is that Marcus's father is put to death based on false evidence (and all of his family, who are also ordered to be put to death as was the way then) and Marcus suddenly finds himself the sole remaining family member...

All is not lost however, as by way of saving him from what he knows is coming Marcus's father has sent him north to Britain with urgent dispatches for one of his best friends - the dispatches of course are nothing of the sort - they give the word that he is about to be killed, with a request that the friend (a Legatus of an Auxilia cohort based on Hadrian's Wall) look out for Marcus and protect him if he is able.

Either way, having proven himself in a couple of skirmishes Marcus ends up as a very probationary centurion and soon sets about whipping his century into shape - just in time to take part in the revolt by the indigenous Britain's.

The detail on how the Auxilia is run is very good - roles and responsibilities of the centurions, how many there are (10 by the way), how many men in each century (about 80), weapons and armour (different to the main stream legions by the way - which I didn't know) - and all provided as part of the story so that you don't feel like you're being lectured to...

The language throughout is "soldierly", the battle descriptions are excellent (some of the best I've read since "Gates of Fire") and despite the initial implausibility of Marcus being accepted as a centurion, the strength and depth of the story and characters make it all entirely plausible in the end..

Well worth getting - Steve the Wargamer gives this one a nine out of ten - thanks DG!

Brrrrr......

It's hard to believe that only 7 weeks separates this, which was the last major sail of the year,in (t)shirt sleeves...

..from this..

..and this, which was taken this morning when the temperature was still -2' C!

The UK is going through an unseasonal cold patch - we don't normally get this kind of weather until January or February which had lead me to think of contents of "Papillon's" bar.. yes, she does have one..

Sub-zero temperatures do nasty things to pressurised cans of beer, and not wanting to have a major clean-up on my hands I decided to go and empty the bar on my way to work..

This was what I came away with....

.. what can I say - it was a hot, dry summer..

=======================================================
On the wargaming front I'm still fired up following the trip to Warfare last weekend and have a number of projects on the go...

• The table is currently set for my first game using the "A Good Dusting" rules, looking forward to that..
• I'm currently re-basing my WWII troops using the same basing style as my Sudan figures ie. with real sharp sand as opposed to the sand coloured flock - they look better and at the same time I'm also taking the option to standardise on 30x30mm bases wherever possible..
• The ACW wagons are now assembled and look great - I'm waiting for a window of opportunity to undercoat them and the Kennington officer figures
• DG and I are currently engaged in an American Civil War campaign using Berthier, which I may blog on once we have reached a critical mass in campaign terms...

..this guy turned up on the tree outside my loft window the other day - very imperious...

Barge "Alice"

As mentioned previously I went out for a days sailing on Thames barge on Tuesday, and what a brilliant day out.. weather was perfect, sunny and hot, with a pleasant enough breeze to get us moving under sail...

As the weather was so good I decided to cycle down to Gunwharf in Portsmouth where the "Alice" was moored - not an insubstantial journey in itself (16 miles each way I found out afterwards..!)

...and on the way happened to see this one coming out...

..she's HMS_Lancaster a type 23 frigate of the "Duke" class.. she's been on patrol off the horn of Africa for the last seven months on anti-piracy, drug, and terrorism patrols, and only just got back to her home port at the end of May... I'm slightly gob-smacked to say that she's the sixth "Lancaster" to have served in the navy.. and makes me wonder what the most numerous ship currently is... another post perhaps..

Returning to "Alice" however, despite her appearance she was built at Wivenhoe in 1954.. she was originally built as a lighter (basically an un-powered barge that was meant to be rowed, or towed) for transporting goods between the River Lea and the Lower Pool of London. She carried various cargoes, but her claim to fame is that she was used to supply the pirate radio station "Radio Caroline" in the 70's.

She was eventually bought by a chap called Owen Emerson in 1994, who chopped off both ends (leaving the cargo hold section) and then went about welding a Thames sailing barge "nose" and "tail" to each end! He managed to finish all this by 1998 - astonishing amount of work, but she looks fantastic..

..she now spends her days on charter - taking parties like ours out sailing for the day.

So, following a breakfast of bacon rolls we dropped the moorings and headed out to sea - the plan was to sail over to Cowes on the Isle of Wight, have some lunch, and then head back to Portsmouth to arrive some time early evening.. and so it transpired...

Weather in the Solent as I said was perfect - just enough breeze to get the sails up, but not too much for a total bunch of incompetents. All sails were soon up and we wended our way to Cowes... have to say that the sailing experience on a big lady like this is entirely different to "Papillon" - very gentle movement, everything very "definite", though she does rack up a quite surprising turn of speed... there's a lot of sails, and she's not as heavily loaded as she would be when working... in normal operation she would only have a crew of 2 - a man and a boy...

Some views along the way... first off Osborne House, this was Viccie's summer time pad...

...and a little further on I also spotted this one...

...this I've managed to find out is Norris Castle which, despite it's appearance, was built in 1790 - there was I thinking this was a full-on medieval castle! Somewhat amazingly, it is still lived in, and despite that huge size only has four bedrooms...

Further on though we came upon these - which was a bit of a highlight for me - I think they were all there for the "2010 British Classic Yacht Club Panerai Cowes Regatta" which takes place later this month - there were at least four of these big boats out... practising perhaps??

..this one is the gaff cutter ‘Tuiga’ (Sail number D3) which was built in 1909 for the Duke of Medinacelli, who was a friend to the King of Spain, and designed identically to the King's yacht, "Hispania" - this was so that they could then race on equal terms against each other (though, allegedly, he never ever won... allegedly... ). She's now based in Monaco full time... a different world my friends!

I also saw "Mariquita" (built 1911), and this one who's name/provenance I'm still trying to track down..



...coming around the headland towards Cowes - "the mecca of world yachting" (it says here ) No reason to doubt it by the way - once we'd moored up and gone to find the pub for lunch I've never seen a high street so full of chandlers and yacht outfitters... nice place though, only my second visit but exactly as I remember it.

Lunch was over (accompanied by two pints of local brewery Goddard's "Fuggle Dee Dum" which was in outstanding condition) we departed Cowes, and the effects of the beer were immediately to be felt, with the more juvenile among us immediately legged it up the rigging... guilty, your honour...

Another highlight of the day - a visit by these guys on the way back.. no, no-one had fallen out of the rigging, one of the ladies on board is married to a helicopter winch man in the coastguard rescue helicopter - they were out and about on another job so they bypassed to say hello on their way back to the base... very impressive close up..

..and that was largely it unfortunately, would have been quite happy to have carried on for at leas another week. If you get the chance, or fancy something a little different I wholeheartedly recommend the experience.. just Google barge and Alice to find them..

Coming ashore in Gunwharf however, I found these two already moored... the first one is MGB 81 - one of the first boats of this design to be built, she was launched in June 1942. She took part in many wartime operations and received the battle honour ‘Normandy 1944’ for the role she played in support of the US landings at Omaha Beach during D-Day... more info here: http://www.historicboatcharter.co.uk/mgb-81/history.html

This one is "Medusa" - built in 1943 for convoy escort duty in the western approaches. There is a brilliant website that has a very good history of the boat here http://www.hmsmedusa.org.uk



Excellent day out...