Das Boot (Redux)

After the major project of the Warlord Titan I needed a quick palette cleanser do knocked off the U Boat from Cruel Seas. Really simple and done with the same sea base as my other naval work. 

"A Rather Difficult Week"

Letter from Captain William 'Windy' West to Admiral 'Tufty' Thessinger, 21 October 1941

Dear Tufty,

Hope this finds you well, old chap, and that Mavis is keeping you fed. The official report will follow in the next bag, but I just wanted to let you know we've had rather a difficult week down here on the coast. Jerry has been frightfully uppity and, sad to say, our chaps have not really made the best showing of themselves. You'll be getting our requisitions for new boats and whatnot through the usual channels but I wanted you to know what had happened.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, two of our chaps (Roger and Lofty Harris) were coming back from a patrol when then ran into an E-Boat just off Maiden's Point. There was some exchange of fire and Lofty got the worst of it before everyone went on their way. Obviously I gave our chaps a damned good talking to as they should have sunk the blighter. Had I known how the rest of the week was going to go I should have likely given them a medal as at least they didn't have to swim home.

Thursday

Your intelligence officer (I've totally forgotten his name, wee man with glasses and the look of a feral weasel) told us that a tanker would be vulnerable so I dispatched 'Blackbeard' Barnes and Fingers along with Lofty to have a crack at it. Now lord knows, Tufty, I'm not one to complain, but I do think your weaselly chap could have let us know that the tanker had a damned big gun on it. As it was, Lofty and Fingers all got sunk. The tanker went on its merry way.

Friday

Barnes had managed to limp most of the way home but his engine finally gave up the ghost somewhere around Torquay. He sent an SOS so I sent out a rescue boat (captained by McGee) and another three Vospers ('Shagger' Troughton, Arkwright and Shorthouse) to try and bring his lads home. As best as I can establish, Jerry picked up the SOS as well and decided to bag themselves Barnes and his boat with three of those damned e-Boats. Shorthouse struck his colours in pretty short order after his hull was turned into something like Emmental. Shagger tried to flank Jerry but sank under sustained fire and Arkwright went down in much the same way after his ammunition cooked off and the boat caught fire.

McGee managed to get alongside Barnes but then the bloody Hun - and pardon my french but they really are a bunch of bastards, Tufty - opened fire on the rescue ship. At this point Barnes managed to get his 20mm to bear and fired back. Well, Jerry unleashed everything he had sinking both the rescue ship and Barnes' stricken vessel. And then - and I can hardly believe I'm writing this - the beastly germans opened fore on Shorthouse whose surrender they had already accepted.

It's just not cricket, Tufty. Anyhow, we'll be sending in a request in respect of 6 new Vospers tomorrow.

Here's hoping next week is better.

Yours,

Windy.

Telegram from Kapitan Fritz Leiber to Kreigmarine HQ

Die Briten sind Müll.

+++++++

We had our first game of Cruel Seas and played the first three scenarios. As you can see from the AAR above, it did not go well for Blighty. Although a large part of it did come down to my legendarily bad dice rolling I think it's definitely true that the Vospers were a little undergunned in comparison to the German Schnellboots. 

This was a fabulously fun game, and definitely one I will be playing more of - even if it did lead my good friend playing the Germans to commit an actual, bona fide War Crime - and what's worse, he didn't even care. Bloody rugby players. 

This is man who just shat all over the Articles of War.

As a final aside, anyone wondering why one of my Captains was called Shagger Troughton may be interested to know that Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor in Doctor Who, captained MTBs from 1941 to 1945; he was decorated and mentioned in dispatches for sinking an eBoat by ramming it with his vosper which was on fire. All while wearing a tea cosy on his head to ward off the chill.

The 'Shagger' bit? Well.... he had an active social life. And died how he lived. 

The Cruel Sea

My main Christmas present this year was Warlord Games new WW2 naval game, Cruel Seas. The rules seem fun and I'll playing the first game tonight, but obviously first I needed to paint the miniatures.

The two types of boat in the main box are British Vospers and German Schnellboots (called E-Boats by the Brits), both Motor Torpedo Boats or MTBs. Painting them up was very easy, and some simple weathering with rust pigment finished them off. The finishing touch was rigging the radio antenna on the Vospers using some metallic thread.

The game seems to envision the boats being used without bases but the models as they are, although pretty, lacked dynamism. I wanted to give them a sense of movement and drama and to do that they needed a base.

Thankfully, I had learnt how to do sea texture for the U-Boat diorama a while ago, so this was basically a stripped down version. As I know a lot of other people have recently got into the game, here's a simple step by step.

1. make the base. 

I used plasticard as the water resin is quite heavy and I wasn't sure the effect it would have on mdf.

I estimated base sizes for the two ships and then added texture. On 1/1200 I'd use plastic putty, but I wanted larger waves here so went with polyfilla.

2. paint

I used vallejo deep sea green and then sponged some random sky grey and off white. These shouldn't follow the contours of the base as they will appear beneath the surface and are just there to add depth - although it's probably handy if you put a lot around the wake at the stern.

3. Water effect

This comes in two stages. First, a layer of Still Water. This provides a gloss surface and, more importantly, self-levels any lumps and bumps in the polyfilla.

Then add the Atlantic water paste (there are other ones available with different colours). This is applied quite thick and will dry with some decent depth to it.

When this has dried, add a second layer.

MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE AT LEAST 24 HOURS FOR EACH OF THESE THREE LAYERS TO CURE BEFORE YOU ADD THE NEXT.

4. more painting

You can faff around with this bit to your heart's content, but I use a mix of the Atlantic paste, off white and glaze medium to sponge around the higher areas. This is then followed with a final sponge of pure offwhite on the highest points.

5. Wave texture

Glue the boats down at this point. You don't need much glue or to worry about any gaps as the boats will be bedded down more securely in the next step.

To add the first part of the wake, dip some plain white tissue paper in the still water effect and then push it along the side of the boat. Scrunch it up to give shape to the waves and add more still water to blend it into the base.

Then, if you have any parts where the boat is breaking a wave, or you want to add more body to the waves, do the same with cotton wool.

The process for all of the boats took no more than two hours - but spread over four days. Patience is the key, but I think the final effect is worth it.