Dutch Fleet

That rarity of rarities on the Khaki Blog -a finished project. This fleet will hopefully soon see action as part of the naval campaign over at the League of Augsburg - Covid 19 restrictions allowing.

The main fleet in the campaign consists of:

Ship	Vessel Type
Reiger	2nd Rate
Dom van Utrecht	3rd Rate
Kampen	4th Rate
Harder	5th Rate
Asperen	5th Rate

Flag ship Reiger

All models are from a Tumbling Dice starter pack. There were more ships than I needed as well as some Cromsters and Heokers. 

Another Dutch Ship

So definitely been bit by the late 17th Century naval bug and have put in a fleet to the League of Augsburg campaign. It consists of:

Reiger	2nd Rate
Dom van Utrecht	3rd Rate
Kampen	4th Rate
Harder	5th Rate
Asperen	5th Rate

Crews are variable and they all have light guns in keeping with the Dutch standard of the time.

First ship off the brush is the 5th rate Asperen.

Contrast paints again, Skeleton Horde for the sails and Snakebite Leather for the hull. The black and green parts are more traditional Vallejo acrylics. The ship is another from Tumbling Dice (I bought a Dutch starter fleet).

Still no rigging but I will try that on a bigger ship first and work my way down to the 5th rates. Flag is a paper one from Tumbling Dice

So one down and four to go, one of my shorter projects - I might actually finish!

League of Augsburg - Joining the Navy!

Just before the lockdown I took part in a day of playing with the League of Augsburg's excellent set of naval rules. Barry Hilton, of all things League of Augsburg (and author of the rules), hosted and has written up some excellent battle reports from the day which can be found here:
Action at Dunkirk
One Thousand Irish
de Ruyter on the Volta

Worth looking at simply for the fantastic ships and scenery, a true privilege to game with.

As for the results, all I can say is I got very, very lucky in game one! (Sorry Dave).

Anyway, as ever when encountering something new, gorgeous and shiny I had to have a go myself and through the miracles of the internet I ordered a Dutch starter fleet from Tumbling Dice whilst coincidentally sat in Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam killing time after a business trip.

I decided to try my first ship using Contrast paints because I thought they would do a reasonable job and, of course, I'm inherently lazy.

The ship selected for my ministrations was a hoeker, 15 minutes of work (including cleaning and undercoating the model) resulted in this:

Basically a Wraithbone undercoat, sails Skeleton Horde, wood Snakebite Leather and rigging Basillicum Grey. Could do with a little tidy up (magnified images tend to show things up!), a decent base and some varnish but quite pleased with my first attempt.

No flags or additional rigging on this one due to size but I'm going to tackle something bigger next...