Submarine Pen - Internal (trial setup)

I've used some of my harbour sections and made some wall sections to represent a small submarine pen - could be used as part of a game, surrounded by scenic elements (with the roof omitted).

Commandos in Kayaks -- Operation Hancock - Port Dimette - Normandy

The harbour at Port Dimette in Normandy .... the german harbour patrol prepare for nights work...

Approaching under the cover of darkness are four commando kayaks under the command of Major Jeremy Fellowes - objectives to mine as many ships and key parts of facilities as possible. 

---oXo---

! the game runs under cover of darkness with suitable spotting rules etc 

- have left photos in normal lighting for simplicity

just imagine it is dark !

Two of the kayaks move up one side of the harbour....

as the other two head towards the main dock area... the patrol boat is on the move towards an alarm lamp waved and shot fired over by the fuel terminal.

The patrol boat moves onwards while a second patrol boat (a tug) moves out following an alarm lamp waved and shot fired in the vicinity of the ship moored in the centre of the harbour

The patrol boat spots a kayak by one of the ships with it search light and opens fire with its LMGs, 

both commandos are killed and the kayak sinks low in the water...

The patrol boat then moves on towards the fuel terminal, but notices another kayak by a large fishing boat...in the light of the searchlight the LMGs fire ...

again both commandos are killed ... the other patrol boat had found nothing and has reached the fuel terminal

Meanwhile the other two kayaks have reached the dockside un-detected and start fixing mines ...

The other patrol boat moves to search the corner of the dock - sees something shots are fired (one hits one of the commandos), as this patrol boat manouvres it loses sight of the kayak ...

The two remaining kayaks move slowly out of the harbour, the harbour patrol boat sees a kayak and opens fire (one commando is wounded) ...

and then loses sight of the kayak in the darkness going past it ....

the patrol boats sweep around towards the fuel terminal as the kayaks make their way slowly to safety...

---oXo---

Before the germans could organise a check for mines on the ships .... they go off ! Boom !...  damage:

The oil terminal jetty (with two mines attached, 8 damage points) is severely damaged,  a nearby worker rushes quickly to isolate and secure the system.

The three smaller freight ships 

• the two by the dock - no damage (1 mine, 0 damage points), minor damage slight leak, fixable (2 mines, 6 damage points), 
• the ship moored in the middle of the harbour (2mines, 8 damage points) severely damaged and taking water, will probably sink

The large freight ship docked by the warehouses , kerboom !! blows up and sinks (4 mines attached, 20 damage points) - the explosion causing some blast damage to the warehouses. 

Rules used

a copy of the quickly written flimsy rules here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wTmd7_oZrilxEu_X7Qk8aqowyH0Fr8-x/view?usp=sharing

ethos of rules is simple mechanisms and minimal dice use.

Frogmen ...

 I wanted some frogmen for future games,  difficult to see them as they would be underwater or just bobbing up on surface, possibly one on land ?

Anyhow I had dig through what I had, a modern mini action pose frogmen - will do for on land. For divers in the water I cut up some 1/72 Atlantic frogmen to have a couple with heads above water. Also made some gaming markers of disturbed surface water.  Air bubbles would be unlikely as rebreather equipment was in use.

Royal Navy ship's crew...

Finished some 20mm Royal Navy ship's crew (figs mostly Gunthwaite Miniatures plus some SGTs Mess),

They make an nice addition to my large ship model..

British Landing Craft ....[LCAs + LCM(s)]

For use to pick up off a beach or part of a small coastal raid on France, have put together enough for a small landing ...I bought 3 resin LCAs from Grubby Tanks (Britannia Miniatures range), 

while looking at historical pics of LCAs came across the small LCM(S),  armed with mortar and dual machine guns. I thought it would be a nice addition, so made one up from cardboard, foam board and oddment bits of plastic....

Finished it off in the same paint scheme as the LCAs

 For troops in the landing craft I have painted up some Airfix commandos...

Oil Storage Terminal ...

For a possible target for a raid,  a small oil storage area and docking point for a tanker....

I struggled initially to find something for the fuel tanks, I had a spare tall'ish one - for a couple more I used large reels of sticky tape and cut some tops for them from cardboard.  

all items painted up....

Work in the shipyard ....(3) Launches & ships finished

A number of items finished this week...

Two small cargo ships...

a small tug....

Harbour Defence Motor Launch,  added side machine guns and depth charges before painting. Crew are on Sally 4th 15mm clear bases..

A harbour patrol boat ...

A basic launch ... 

The quay surface spruced up from green to cobbles using Metcalfe O/HO Cobblestone sheets...

I have most of what I need for harbour based games - a few more things to add - a couple standalone warehouses perhaps; then best to add items for specific scenarios.

Work in the shipyard ....(2)...Small Cargo Ship & Tug

Still ship & boat building ... on a bit of a 'build it bender'.

I made a sort of sail barge a couple of years ago, it always looked wrong, so I decided to convert it into another small cargo ship...  sail replaced with derrick and a new cabin/wheelhouse added...

I made up three generic harbour launches, too many for what I needed, so I decided to rework one to be a tug...

Next on my list are some fishing boats and a small trawler; with those and what I've built I've got enough to cover most harbour setups. An added advantage is that most items can be re-used on my 1920/30s adventure games as well.

Work in the shipyard ....

Finished first build on armed motor lauch

 a little coastal puffer ship, modified styrene kit from Sarik Hobbies

also arrived are three LCAs and a sinking one ( Britannia Miniatures, sold by Grubby Tanks)

Making motor launches...

 I've been building a couple of basic motor launches; hulls under construction with 3mm thick card for bottom and thin card for sides...

Nearly done, built to suit 20mm and 28mm figs, along with my basic scribble plan and card templates used

Roof added, check that 20mm figs on bases look about right

On the left side of the above pic are a couple of scratch built small guns for my next build - a Harbour Defence Motor Launch (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_Defence_Motor_Launch); it won't be fully detailed model but just a game piece so will truncate the length and keep the essential features

Submarine model - hull and deck improvements

After thinking carefully on how best to improve the submarine model I made some time back, I decided on the following
- raising the out of water height by 3mm
- add a wider curved shape to the central section to represent the top of the ballast tanks.
- improving the look of the deck

I got the sub out for modification, plus a couple of reference photos ....

 I used some paper and a bendy ruler to mark out a template for the new central part shape...

New parts cut out of 3mm card and stuck to the underside, the height 'out of water' look is much better

 new side shape created using plastic wood followed by a light sanding down...

deck given a new surface using some strips of textured wallpaper...

New deck painted and the hull given a new coat of grey paint

I'll have to think of a game I could use it in ....