Weird World War I: Part 6

Now, as promised, photographic evidence of the latest Land Dreadnoughts to terrorise the Earth: introducing the 'Devastators', and their diminutive cousins, the 'intermediate' class of dreadnoughts!

Below we see a pair of the unfeasible self-propelled guns that are part of the arsenal of Austro-Hungary, in a camouflage scheme designed by Vienna's pre-eminent botanist, guaranteed to defeat the compound eyes of any invading Martian! (For which, read.....I went a bit mad with the paint-job.........oh well.)

They are teamed with their ammunition carriers with shell loading cranes, ensuring a never ending supply of crater-makers. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find the brass etched mesh I wanted to use for these, and had to go with simple plasti-card and wire; that's the problem with never throwing anything away - you can't find it when you need it.)

Obviously basing is yet to be done, I'm not sure yet if they should go on the same base, as it will be very large, although I suppose these behemoths probably wouldn't move around too much during a game.

The Navwar Karl-Gerat is absolutely ideal for this sort of conversion, it already looks the part, just some length added to the barrel and you have a super-weapon beyond all imagining; how much does it weigh.....who knows? What calibre......what do you fancy,

280mm.......380mm.....whatever you like!

Next up, something stirs in the hinterland of Anatolia, surely a Mark IV Tank? Yet it looks as if it is about to destroy that whole farm up ahead under its whirling tracks, and what is that on top?

Yes, you guessed it, we have the intermediate class Ottoman Land Dreadnought, complete with armoured observation turret in national stereotypical colour and form! O.K., I went a bit mad with the colour scheme here as well, but it's easily remedied if I feel differently in a couple of weeks (phew....what was I thinking?) Afterall, what self respecting servant of Attaturk would be seen without a Fez?

These represent a poor man's solution to matching the likes of Great Britain's HMLD Indefatigable seen in a previous post, and will certainly have no trouble dealing with standard AFVs or artillery. Navwar's Mk I 'Mother' does double duty here with a couple of additions from the bits box, again an easy conversion to do.

Talking of conversions, what about building from scratch, (In a sort of Dr Frankenstein, cannabilistic way...) well I had to go to Tsarist Russia for inspiration here, and have completed the production model of the 'Tsar Tank' or Neoptyr by Lebedenko, which has been given the armoured turntable of a decommissioned battleship in order to mount the world's first turnable turret on an AFV, shame it only mounts 47mm pop guns. Obviously the enemy will be frozen in terror at the ridiculous contraption as it approaches, and run for their lives!

Certainly, I had a lot of fun putting these chaps together, and they help to underline the world wide nature of the conflict of 'Weird' WWI; I think next I'll be looking at some of the Alien forces, making use of the 2mm Sci-Fi on offer from Irregular, that's if I don't get distracted by thinking about what the Japanese, Italians, or even the Americans might field!

Weird World War I: Part 5

O.K. - I'm bringing out the Land Dreadnought Big Guns - literally! Emboldened by the rail gun seen in a previous post, I'm having a go at converting some 6mm minis into a class of 'Devastators', weapons capable of taking out a land Dreadnought at one blow, if only from the enormous H.E. and cratering effect of one of their shells.

This is obviously a way for the less technologically capable or budget-starved nations, who are unable to produce the real thing themselves, to employ existing weapons, whether Naval or siege guns, to deadly effect. Once motorized, these weapons can avoid the pitfalls of being stuck in fixed defences, moving from site to site, evading detection, whilst stalking their prey.

I use the term stalk here, advisedly, of course, given that they will weigh hundreds of tons!

I started with a ready-made devastator of unfeasible proportions that actually existed, the German 'Karl Gerat' tracked mortar of WWII vintage. This holds the title of the largest Self-propelled Gun ever made, topping out at 124 tons, and mounting a 60cm or 24" gun capable of firing 1 round every 10 minutes!

This doesn't need much doing to it to give it a 'Weird WWI' look, but I had been admiring the newly released land train models from Brigade recently, and realised that a weapon of this size would need equally large ammunition which it could not effectively carry by itself, so I decided to add on a transport vehicle in convoy to form a truly enormous weapons system. Navwar's G075, and GWG6 A7V Uberlandwagen pair up below, the latter forming the rear transport section:

Mocking up an idea of the two together, (forgive the blue-tac!) we have a carrier which will have an added ammunition lift and some oversized shells on board. These I found rolling around in a desk drawer at work, not sure if they are some sort of pen nib or electrical connector, but they fit the bill as giant, heavy duty shells. I'm going to add some semblance of connector and loading gear, probably from some brass etched mesh I've got left over from an old project.

The whole, of course, will base up at a whopping 80x40mm, so definitely not for the faint hearted!

Next up, I've invested in a pair of Navwar's GWB19 Mk I Tank 'Mother' - this will form the basis of a sort of intermediate Land Dreadnought, as if an existing armoured vehicle had been super-sized in order to compete with the amphibious monsters of the Great Powers. I think the addition of a top turret should add more than a flavour of the AFV seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the plaything of the Ottoman Governor, so this will definitely serve as the front-line machine of the Turks. As you can see, this will base up at 40x40mm, so should scale well alongside existing minis.

Finally we have the work-in-progress photos of the production model of the Lebedenko Tank from Tsarist Russia. Based on the bonkers concept of the giant bicycle-wheeled behemoth seen here: (Scroll down to the bottom of the page)

http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/KRUPP%20KUGELPANZER.htm

This version has done away with the wheels that were so vulnerable to artillery fire with something armoured and is seen below for comparison against the Grand Char de Rupture La Normandie:

It has been cannibalised from the rear wheels of the aforementioned 'Mother', the carriage of a 15mm Zulu-War era light field gun, and other various plastic and metal bits and bobs: observant readers will notice a miniature hex nut, some steel pins, and parts of a Royal British Legion Remembrance Day poppy (Never throw anything away!).

Will this weapon be any more successful than the original? We shall see....in any event, I think these new entries prove that the Global arms race has begun in earnest!

Photos of painted examples to follow as soon as they're ready.

Weird WWI - 1919 : Part 4

As I explained in a previous post, I'm keen to expand on the air forces of the Great Powers, with items both from Irregular and Brigade, alongside some scratch-built ones. Given that we are now in 1919, we must move away from 'steam age' technology and look for something with a much more modern appearance. What could be more emblematic, therefore, of the modern 'Threat from the Air', than the Zeppelin?

Although Brigade Models offer some very large dirigibles, as they are metal, the price is a bit high for an old cheapskate like myself. Enter, then, the Revell Minikit of the Hindenburgh.

This is a relatively simple snap together affair which comes in a grey plastic, with decals more appropriate to 30s Germany, but a quick paintjob makes her look more the part, and when popped on a flight stand, scales pretty well with 2mm minis.

Talking of things lighter than air, next up a photo of Brigade's Turkish War Balloon, a must have for the Weird War. From a distance, it appears like a simple observation balloon, only to open fire when Biggles and his chums make their approach; handy as well for spotting and dealing with Martian War Machines from above!

Finally we have a first attempt at a form of home-made observation/barrage balloon. Your typical WWI gasbag, is of course, like a rather flaccid sausage, something which might be tricky to model in 1/900th. I'd had the idea of using papier mache or similar, but the outcome looked more like it had the flight characteristics of a turd rather than a bird, so I had a scrabble in the bits box.

Having used the top of one for the bridge of the German Land Dreadnought, I opted for a plastic pipette of eyewash, as these have a rather bomb-like shape, narrowing down to the neck. Below we see the process of construction: the cap is removed, and the end clipped to shape. The flat label tag happens to be hollow, so a piece of this can be cut and attached as a stabiliser on the narrow end, and we are left with a passable balloon shape.

The addition of some twisted fine-gauge wire as tethering cables, and a bit of scrap for the observer's basket, and we have the Mark I version as below; this should do the job until some kindly manufacturer comes up with an alternative:

Now an urgent report from the Russian front. German Intelligence received the following photograph from an agent at Tunguska - could this be evidence of a new Tsarist super weapon - or are the rumours of an invasion from Venus true?

Only time will tell......

Weird World War I: 1919 - Part 3

(Clicking on all photos should bring up a larger image)

There's been a lot of interest since my last post on this subject, in the concept of a 'sequel', if you like, to Wessex Games/Brigade Model's Land Ironclads. (Thanks in no small part to the kind support of the Editor over on TMP!) I've had any number of people asking about what these 'new' dreadnoughts were.

I'm not presuming to improve on the already excellent ideas in this range and its rules, merely hoping to add some of my own into the mix. So if you'll indulge me, in this longer post and in some others to come, I'll be taking a look at some of the stuff I'm working on.

First off, we have the Land Dreadnoughts of the Weird WWI era themselves, as glimpsed in an earlier post, based on Irregular Miniature's IKSF26.

As you can see in the Work-In-Progress picture above, this mini can quite easily be converted into different versions - the addition of funnels made from those plastic tube covers for paint brushes, or a judicious filing down of some of the turrets can add quite a lot of individuality.

For the Germans, I wanted an 'armoured' look, so used the cap of a plastic vial of eye wash (!) to give a helmet-like superstructure, and then named the whole, in that style unique to the German language, a 'GepanzerteUberlandSchiffe' or armoured land ship, in this case, the Lutzow. These minis have a handy oblong flat surface to each side which is ideal for a national flag - hand painted here, but could be done by using a pre-printed flag stuck on. The colour scheme comes from naval Dreadnoughts at around the time of the start of the First World War, and the base here is the card backed by magnetic sheet that I normally use, dimensions 40x40mm.

I see these vehicles as 'land ships' in the truest sense, in that they are sea-going vessels, rather like the coastal monitors of an earlier era, mounting big guns, that can proceed onto the land using their gigantic tracks, crushing all before them.

We therefore see that Her Majesty's Land Dreadnought (HMLD) Indefatigable has a distinctly nautical flavour, with an added mast, and the top gun turret filed down to give a defined bridge:

Next we have the 'Grand Char de Rupture de la Marine' La Normandie; I added a tall superstructure made from electrical cable insulation topped off with some sprue, in imitation of the large fighting tops of French ships of the period, and her colours as well echo the original schemes.

These behemoths, of course, would be supported by a plethora of other vehicles of a smaller size, right down to the diminutive WWI tanks seen in my previous post. The conversion of miniatures to come up with new concepts is not something I can claim credit for, and principally this idea came from the work done over at Yours in a White Wine Sauce:

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

Here, in a variety of scales, but particularly to my eye in 6mm, many weird and wonderful ideas can be viewed. In the future, I'm particularly keen to have a go with Scotia's model of the A7V Uberlandwagen (the transport version of the tank), and also Navwar's tracked Karl Mortar of WWII vintage, to produce some giant SP guns!

Of course, as many navies were to discover, capital ships are vulnerable to air attack, and so some form of top cover is required for all this hardware. Now Brigade Models' Aeronef range is obviously the main contender here, although I feel that a lot of these minis are too remeniscent of ACW/VSF types for this later period. My starting point, therefore, was the 2mm generic Biplane available from Irregular, IKGW6. With some filing down of the tailplane or wings, or indeed the addition of a third plasticard wing, most types can easily be represented (Brigade are yet to release their tri-plane fighter - come on, you guys!).

As can be seen above, I mount these in flights of three on the widely available 1" flight stands, and they can do good service in providing cover for the ground troops.

Strike aircraft types, however, saw me heading back to Brigade, who have the excellent VAN-905 Four-engine Biplane Bomber we see below. Although these have a couple of more engines than the historical Gotha or Handley Page, the fact that the top wing comes separately with the engines attached, means that by reversing it, you can represent either type:

I mount the aircraft on the flight stand by topping it with a rubber washer, and then inserting steel stationery pins into this, which are then bent up at a right angle and to which the tiny 'planes are mounted using superglue. A whiff of some fluffy cotton wool disguises the washer, and adds a nice cloud! Sopwith Camels go Tally Ho! below after the Hun in the Sun:

The fun, of course, doesn't end here, I feel the VAN2012, Turkish War Balloon, should make an excellent armoured observation balloon, whilst VAN901, Small Dirigible, can fill in with some Hydrogen powered reconnaissance! The only thing lacking is a 'blimp' type barrage/observation balloon: perhaps someone can suggest a good way to scratch-build one of these?

I don't have a photo as yet, but next up on the workbench is a Revell Mini-Kit (06700 Snap-Fit) LZ129 Hindenburg, which is just the right size for a predatory looking Zeppelin, and retailing at around £2~£3 each, won't break the bank.

Finally a quick link for further inspiration on this whole concept, and a promise that as it develops, I'll do all that I can to bring you more photos and news:

http://davidszondy.com/future/war/megabattleship.htm

Have fun!

'Weird' World War I Part 2

As part of my ongoing 'Weird' WWI project, I've recently been trying out some of Irregular Miniatures' 2mm WWI range. Ostensibly 1/900th in scale, they should fit in well with some of the other minis I'm planning to use, particularly some Sci-Fi stuff and the wider range now available from Brigade Models.

First up, we see above the German A7v in the company of some captured MkIV. The front of the German tank sculpt is a bit flat, with not much of a suggestion of the front gun, but the top mounted cab and roof grilles are really well defined. The MkIV is really good, you can even see the guns in the sponsons!

Below a group of British MkIVs, mounted on card bases, dimensions 40X30mm, at these sizes, they're best mounted in groups:

Coming next we see see the French Char de Schneider, a model that has really caught the shape of the original, although again the front ball mounted gun is not that well defined (What am I talking about- these things are tiiiiiny!)

Talking of tiny, how about these FT-17s - these guys are even smaller, yet the MG and cupola on the turret are plainly visible - with some great definition on the tracks as well - shame my paint job on these was not so hot (Macro photography is a harsh critic - beware!).

The piece de resistance, however, without a doubt is IKM8 Rail Gun, here in the guise of of a German Kanone. This one would put a lot of 1/300th models to shame, here it is accompanied by the engine and tender from IKM7 Armoured Train, and in the background by IKM6 Train and waggons. These are all mounted on BG147 Track lengths, which again, given their size, are really well defined.

Brigade Models has a range of small contraptions that should match up well with these, even some rocket armed MkIV tanks to deal with those pesky Martians!

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Frames/VLI/index.html

Next Post: the Land Dreadnoughts themselves, and some thoughts on 2mm scale aviation...