The last post in this series concluded Carolyn and my stay in Queensland before our boarding a flight from Cairns to our next destination, Darwin the capital city of the Northern Territory, the most smallest, with a population of about 140,000 people, the most wettest, with a tropical climate consisting of a wet and dry season and the most northern of Australia's capitals making it a key link to Indonesia and East Timor. JJ's on Tour - Palm Cove, Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest, Atherton Tablelands and Tolga Bat Hospital The just over two and half hour flight took u ..read more

An important stage in my Camperdown Project Build started last October 2023 was reached this week and the plan to bring the battle to the table in glorious 1:700 scale moved a little closer. The first part of this little project is now finished with the completion of the last two models in the Batavian Battle Line and thus all sixteen are ready for battle with work now progressing to the British Windward Division and the three British 74-gun third rates, Venerable, Triumph and Bedford. My models representing the 68-gun Gelijkheid and 56-gun Beschermer. Once the two fleets are f ..read more

  It was back in late January 2023 that Carolyn and I found ourselves on north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, in the final leg of our four month odyssey across the Pacific, that had started in Vancouver, Canada in October the previous year and come via Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, North and South Island, to arrive in Melbourne for New Year 2023 and our subsequent travels illustrated on the map below.  Our route so far on our travels through Australia, starting down in Melbourne just before New Year 2023. Map courtesy of https://www.freeworldmaps.net/australia ..read more

Lots of activity in JJ's Shipyard this last couple of weeks as I worked to complete the Batavian battle line and the last five ships needed before moving on to the next stage of the Camperdown collection. JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Battle of Camperdown, Project Build, Part Six If you missed the last group of additions, I've linked them above where you can also find the links to the other models completed so far since October 2023. The latest additions to my Batavian battle line, from left to right, Hercules 64-guns, Admiraal Tjerk Hiddes De Vries 68-guns and the razee ..read more

It was back in April last year that I presented a project that I had been working on and something that had been an idea long in the gestation period, principally waiting for a collection of models in the right scale to better present the level of actions I had in mind to write up as a collection of historical scenarios from William James' naval history, built around using Kiss Me, Hardy (KMH) and To Covet Glory (TCG). JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Scenario Design Thoughts for Alexander at Bay The work at that time had progressed to and just beyond, Scenario 52, The Capture of the A ..read more

Last weekend I took the Camperdown collection to the Devon Wargames Group's first March meeting to run The Leeward Division Scenario, I played last month at Chez JJ with Mike and Jack using Far Distant Ships (FDS). If you missed our playthrough of this scenario using FDS then follow the link below. JJ's Wargames - Battle of Camperdown - The Leeward Division Attacks, Far Distant Ships The initial plan had been to do something similar at club with a few additional ideas I had had since that game, but as always the plan changes on first contact and with more folks wanting to play tha ..read more

It was two months ago since I last reported on progress with the Camperdown collection, and I have to admit that work in JJ's Shipyard was sporadic after Christmas with time having to be made for other activities, which included a lot of blog work preparing and posting my visit report on the Australian Artillery and Armour Museum which demanded the time to do it properly. If you didn't see the last post on this project or any of the work completed so far you can follow the link below to Post No.5 and links to the preceding posts in the series. JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Battle of C ..read more

Funchal Morning Sun by Edward Poynter. Last week, Carolyn and I caught a plane from Bristol to fly south to the beautiful Portuguese island or more precisely, archipelago of Madeira, out in the Atlantic, just off the North African coast of Morocco, to enjoy a bit of warmer weather after enduring quite a cold last few months here in the UK and in need of a bit of sunshine.  Madeira, originally uninhabited, was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1419 and settled after 1420. It is a popular year-round resort, particularly for fe ..read more

This is Part Two of a two part post looking at the collection of the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum that I visited on the ninth leg of our Australia trip, after arriving a Cairns in late January early February 2023. As with Part One, this is a long long post to allow me to give a comprehensive overview of this very impressive collection, that seems to be added to each and every month, so if WWII German and Cold War tanks and guns 'float your boat' I suggest making a brew or something stronger if it's your preference, and I hope enjoy the read and accompanying pictures. Our rou ..read more

It has been with much anticipation that I looked forward to posting this AAR on a new set of rules for me, namely Far Distant Ships (FDS) written by David Manley, as part of my New Year Project to complete and play the Battle of Camperdown and covered in my recent post looking at the preparations for our game. JJ's Wargames - Battle of Camperdown Preparations, The Leeward Column Attacks! Playtest On first and subsequent reads, FDS certainly chimed with thoughts around staging and playing bigger battles using 1:700 models, but as my post alluded to, reading is one thing and playin ..read more