New 54mm Nile River Steam Launch

 

The growing Dervish flotilla on the Nile River

CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Yesterday I applied the finishing touches to a launch boat for the Dervish flotilla of boats for my Khartoum  Project. The river battle will likely be a part of my package of 54mm Sudan games at Historicon 2023. The Sudan package of games will include several runnings of the storming of the city of Khartoum, a Limeys & Slimeys type of river battle with boats, and Abu Klea (British Camel Corps versus the Dervish). All games will be played on two 6ft by 24ft parallel tables.

On to the river boat update:

The launch (foreground) and dhow (background) are made from the same
hull that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. This demonstrates how the same
hull can be modified to achieve a different looking boat.

If you enlarge this picture and take a closer look at the poop deck, you can
see the ship's steering wheel and a safety rail. I also added a small set of 
stairs to the right of the safety rail.

The steam launch boat is on the right. The boat to its left is a dhow that still needs its sails.
A finished dhow with sails is behind the two boats in the front. A fourth vessel is behind the
dhow with the sail, just visible around the corner of the Nile.

After the boats are finished, I will start working on some riverbank pieces that cover up the straight edges of the blue felt. These will be made from cork placemats that I bought at Target. A sample of two curvy sections is shown in the table below.

Note the two curved sections on the right. These are just sample cutouts that need
to be terrained. I'm still deciding on how much sand color versus green grass should be
on the riverbank .

A picture of the Nile River in the Sudan

Summary:

Thus far I have built two Nile River paddle boats for the British team and four dhow style boats for the Dervish side. I don't anticipate building anymore large British paddlewheel boats, but I might build four more dhows for the Dervish. I'd like this to be an 8-player game.

My Khartoum Project is coming along nicely as I've placed my recent focus on terrain building and river boat modeling. I will be getting back to the painting of more Ansar and Beja figures for the Dervish army. I anticipate that each Dervish player will command 100 figures.