Continental Ship Enterprise

Enterprise - 1:300 scale paper model.

Over the last couple of days, I made an attempt at trying something different for me.  Generally, I'm not much of a naval modeler, and I don't think I've ever made a paper model before.  Now I can successfully say that I've completed a naval paper model.

Port side, with Quarter for scale.

In May of 1775, Colonel Benedict Arnold and his men, during the opening months of the American Revolution, captured the Canadian port of St. Johns, and with it, the Sloop-of-War George.   The George was renamed Enterprise, and used by the Continental army to secure Lake Champlain.


On the 11th of October, 1776, the Enterprise, along with Arnold's small fleet of recently built ships and gunboats, took part in the Battle of Valcour Island.  The battle ended as a defeat for the Americans, with several vessels sunk, scuttled, or captured.  Enterprise, however, escaped, and made her way back to Crown Point, and later Ticonderoga.

In July of the next summer, with the British seizing Fort Ticonderoga and moving against the Continental Army, Enterprise was used to help evacuate the residents of the fort south to Skenesborough (now Whitehall, NY), while the main body of the army retreated across the Lake into what is now Vermont.  The evacuation fleet, unfortunately for the Americans, was overtaken by the British, and Enterprise was run aground on the 7th of July, 1777, to prevent her capture.

Posing with a Vermont commemorative coin.

The model that I built comes as a free printable download from War Artisan's Workshop.  This ship is part of the site's Great Lakes 1:300 Scale collection.  Having never built something of this scale before, and not knowing much about naval building and ships in general, I actually found this to be a pretty enjoyable build.  There are certainly some fiddly bits (tweezers would have come in handy), but taking is slow and careful resulted in a very nice model that looks cool on my desk, and seemslike it is actually robust enough to be used for wargaming.

Now, do I purchase the other models and refight Valcour Island?

Lead Painter's League 13

 

Announced a few weeks ago, the Lead Adventure Forum is once again hosting the Lead Painter's League.  This is the 13th time the challenge/competition has been held, so it seems like as a good a time as any for me to take part.


The competition is basically a way to motivate folks to get their miniatures painted.  The contest consists of 10 rounds of painting.  For each round, participants paint one "team" of at least 5 miniatures.  Points are awarded for certain criteria being met, and teams are judged against each other by members of the forum.  At the end, the painter with the highest number of points is declared the "winner."  Really, though, everyone who participates gets some of their unpainted stock off their desks, so it's a win for everyone.

The first round this year includes a "gothic" challenge.  Anyone who paints a team which fits into the gothic genre receives extra points.  Not having anything like that on hand, I ordered some figures a few weeks ago, when I first found out about the competition, but so far only one of them has arrived in the mail.  With the deadline for entry coming up this week, it looks like I'll need to find a backup plan.

On the positive side, I've finished two teams at this point (to be posted later, so as to not post them before the competition), so I'm off to a good start.  I have four or five more teams worked out, one in primer, so I think I'll be able to keep up, even though I'm a fairly slow (read: unmotivated) painter.

Populating Fort #4

18th Century me with a couple of my daughters.

As I mentioned in my last post, on August 24th and 25th, Warner's Regiment was invited to take on the role of citizens living within the Fort at #4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire.  As a military unit, most of our events are focused on battles, but this event was focused on the people.

The fort itself is an neat structure, or rather, gathering of structures.  There are several houses and shops, arranged in a square around an open green.  The entirety is then encircled by a palisade of logs.  The fort also has a couple of out-buildings, including a working blacksmith shop.

This time around, G and I focused our energy on baking bread for the Regiment's annual dinner, which was going to be taking place at the fort Saturday night.  I researched a few period recipes, we tried a couple at home, and settled on the one that we liked the best.  The night before, we mixed up several batches of dough, leaving them to rise so they'd be ready for baking the next day.

The morning of the event, my child-care plans changed, so we ended up running late, and bringing three more children than planned with us.  It was pretty awesome hanging out with my daughters in period attire, in a period setting, surrounded by friends with their kids and families.

I didn't catch  photos of what everyone in the unit was up to, but in addition to a few of us manning the bake oven, we had a leather worker, a gunsmith, a tinsmith, a couple of spinners, as well as the usual museum staff.  Some of the kids made butter, which was an great addition to the fresh baked bread, and it was overall a nice relaxing day.

Sgt. Golden started the fire since we were running late.

Adding some dough to the oven.

A couple of loaves, fresh from the oven.

Posing with my wares in the Fort's tavern.

There's a baby playing in the middle of that awesome circle of protection.

My youngest, enjoying the fort.

Miss Gabriella, probably *not* laughing at a dad joke.

Me and my wild child.

Workman's Apron

Bread anyone?

The Challenge: September: Everyday (Common workman's apron)
Material: Cotton Muslin
Pattern: Based on diagram on page 6 of The Packet II by Mark Tully
Year: 18the Century
Notions: None
How historically accurate is it? Very accurate, based on period sketches and paintings
Hours to complete: Around 8.
First worn: August 24, 2019.
Total cost: About $5.

At the end of August, my daughter and I were going to be participating in an event with a civilian focus at Fort #4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire.  Since the venue has an outdoor bake oven, my daughter asked if we could bake bread as we had done there a few years ago.  A few days before the event, I got it into my head that if I was going to be a baker, I should have an apron.  I checked some period sketches and paintings, and saw numerous bib-type aprons with a button hole sewn into the top to hook over the button on a mens waistcoat.  These aprons seemed to be used by numerous trades, including carpenters, smiths, and shopkeepers.  I had some muslin left from G's dress project, so I cut out the shape, based on the diagram shown in Mark Tully's The Packet series, and spent a couple of days hand sewing the outer seams all around, adding a button hole, and attaching long apron strings.  I finished in time to wear the apron to the event, putting me a bit closer to feeling like an actual baker.  My workmans cap, that I've carried in my pack for a few years, went missing, so I had to bake in my cocked hat, which tipped the balance back toward *not* feeling like an actual baker.

As it happened, the September Historical Sew Monthly challenge is "Everyday" where participants are challenged to make an item of clothing that would be used in a normal everyday sort of environment.  No fancy dresses or polished suits, just normal stuff the average person might wear during their day to day life.  So, though it was both started and finished a week before September, here's my September contribution to the challenge.

Operation Ransom Guard

Demonstrating in downtown St. Albans.

Last month, on August 11th, a few of us from Warner's Regiment took part in the Vermont National Guard's "Operation Ransom Guard" in St. Alban's, Vermont.

The event was hosted by 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry Regiment of the Vermont National Guard.  The Guard unit was celebrating their history, including doing demonstrations of battle tactics.  Our unit, as well as a Civil War unit and some modern units were invited to demonstrate the unit's historical beginnings and tactics, to show both the public and the current Guard members their origins.

The event was a day-long sort of picnic/party on the green in the center of St. Albans, where the Cavalry is based.  The main event was a short ceremony, combined with tactical demonstrations by the units.  Warner's led off the tactical demonstration by marching onto the field, firing a couple of volleys at close order, then spreading out to open order.  Once in open order we moved across the field, firing as we advanced, then demonstrated an orderly withdrawal.  After the withdrawal, we advanced again, this time at a charge.

Our unit was followed by the Civil War cavalry, who were in turn followed by a number of modern guard units, including cavalry mounted on humvees.  It was interesting to see how modern tactics have evolved, but how they are also basically the same as what Warner's uses on the field as infantrymen.

One of the guardsmen in attendance captured our performance on video, which he posted to his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/getincamo/videos/384300505604263/?t=43