2mm Colonial: Adding some VSF back into the mix...

Some readers might remember that my 'dipping of the toe becomes large splash' entry into 2mm Colonial began with the initial idea of doing Infantry-based forces that would support some Land Ironclads models that I have, but soon morphed into messing about with Mahdists.

In the spirit of a return to the original idea, I've been tinkering with which of Brigade Models' excellent minis would do duty alongside my late Victorian soldiery, and as you can see in the photo above, have plumped for the ostensibly un-British VLI-203 Lafayette Ironclad.

Oh the ignominy! Not only is it a contraption built by those pesky Yankees, but is named after a Frenchie who fought with them against us during their unfortunate Revolution....tsk, tsk, whatever will the Memsahib say?

Putting aside these objections in typically arbitrary fashion, I'm going to stick with this as I felt for a Colonial-type force anchored from around 1875 to 1890, something that had a nice 'Land -Train' appearance would best fit the bill, rather than some of the more Dreadnought-like offerings available in the British range.

Apart from the paint-scheme, of course, I'm going to Anglicise the appearance by the subterfuge of exchanging the turrets included, which to my eye, are a bit too modern in profile, with some spares available from the always useful Aeronef VAN-7011 British gun turrets accessory pack:

This should hopefully render a more suitable appearance, as well as effectively up-gunning the resulting vehicle:

If I really wanted to go the whole hog, I suppose I could further internationalise the whole with the VAN-7053 Heavy Russian turret, but I think this will probably be overkill; all three turret options can be seen below:

Brigade, of course offers real 'Land-Tain' types in the German range, but these are a bit too overpowering for the context in which I want to use them, and besides, the Lafayette is considerably cheaper!

Moreover, they should scale well alongside my existing Land Dreadnought, originally acquired for the 'Weird' WWI project, the 2mm IKSF26 from Irregular Miniatures:

As you may remember, the HMLD indefatigable had a few bits of work done to the basic model, including the addition of funnel and mast, so I would be looking to do the same with the new recruits; all we need now is a name..... perhaps the Burgoyne Land Locomotive Ironclad.....?

2mm Web Resources: New Entry

A new entry, now, into the ever-widening presence of 2mm miniatures on the old WWW, here in the form of a great pictorial entry at the Blog 'One more gaming project':

http://onemoregamingproject.blogspot.com/

Chris Palmer has posted photos of his growing forces for use on Mars, this time with the focus being on the Germans, but he promises more to come - some excellent painting of Brigade Model's Land Ironclads and GW conversions being on show, but also some beautifully painted 2mm Infantry and artillery from Irregular.

Swing by and take a look if the tiniest of minis are your thing - it's already been bookmarked by yours truly.

http://onemoregamingproject.blogspot.com/search/label/2mm

AquaNefiness Part 2: Ottoman sub 'Osman Pasha'

An update now, on the 'quick and dirty' scratch build of an Ottoman AquaNef from the contents of the bits box. Inspired by one of the historical VSF oddities that are so well researched by Tas over at 'Yours in a White Wine Sauce', (Where does he find them all?) this was to be a version of the Turkish early submarines built by Nordenfeldt.

My modelling skills aren't up to all that much, and apart from a few further photos I found on the net, I couldn't find out any more about these enigmatic craft, so I decided on an "in the spirit of..." type of build.

This started with a selection of likely-looking bits and bobs, which gave a workable submarine style shape, and these were then super-glued down onto some 1.6mm thick artist's card backed with magnetic sheeting.

The Aquanef should be ostensibly 1/1200th in scale to match the sizes of comparable Aeronef types available from Brigade Models, however the pieces I chose came in at a whopping 78mm overall in length, so the stand had to be quite large, namely 90mm x 40mm to give a balanced base.

(This compares well with the 60x30mm bases I have used elsewhere on this blog for 1/3000th vessels, I suppose, although how it will eventually fit with Aero/AquaNef gaming is anyone's guess!)

To add some definition, I went for some artistic (well, hapahazard...) smears of putty/filler, in this case Mangers Fine Surface Filler, available in the UK. This would hopefully give the impression of some wave action as the 'Terror of the Black Sea' scythed through the water.

Next, my weapon of choice in the great undercoat debate; why go with white or black when you can sit firmly on the fence with grey? - the ever reliable Panzer Grau, in this case Revell Acrylic AquaColour 36178:

Imagining the murky waters of the Bosphorus might be somewhat less than blue, I went with an undercoat of another firm favourite, Vallejo 70823, Luftwaffe Cam. Green:

This was followed up with a wash of Prussian Blue, and then a dry-brush with Swedish Blue, topped off with a few highlights of white for the whitecaps; given that this was a quick project, I was none too delicate with these applications, more impressionistic than draughtsman-like methinks!

Overall, then, not looking too bad, given that the original scrabble in the bits box had only taken a few minutes, and that this process, including drying time, was standing at the three hour mark, from fevered imaginings to wargaming piece in a few easy steps; this kind of thing would make a nice afternoon or evening project...

To top it off then, some light grey detailing, a black funnel top, and a hand painted Turkish flag to complete the ensemble:

She's probably not the most elegant looking vessel, and some further investment in time and effort might have reaped a cleaner looking product, but I'm pretty pleased with how this bit of fun turned out; I hope she captures the spirit of the originals, if not being exactly a scale model of them...

Be warned, the encouragement of the various Gentlemen readers and contributors to 'Yours in a White Wine Sauce', has got me looking at some small plastic Soy Sauce containers with an eye to cooking up some dirigible companionship for this monster, so look out for some more scruffy scratch-building to come......Tootle-oo....!

AquaNefiness: Quick Scratch Build

Thoroughly inspired by the recent fascinating post over on the always excellent 'Yours in a White Wine Sauce', concerning early Turkish submarines, I felt compelled to have a go at creating some VSF/AquaNef-type craft that might resemble those described.

As far as I am aware, as such, there are no actual submarine craft commercially available from Brigade Models or elsewhere that would fit the bill, (although there are some interesting ACW monitors/torpedo craft in the 1/1200th range from Navwar) so I found myself reaching for the bits box.

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2009/09/nordenfelt-class-turkish-submarine.html

Now as a contact lense wearer, I make frequent use of the eye drops pipettes pictured above, and as regular readers of this Blog will know, they often find their way into various projects in one form or another:

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2009/03/weird-wwi-1919-part-4.html

Something about the bomb-like shape lends itself to the construction of weird and wonderful weapons of war, and they are fitted with various protrusions and ridges which can have the appearance of industrial-revolutionary mechanisation; so I knew these would be my starting point.

A length of rubber electrical connector, a paint brush-tip cover and a scrap of plastic fell into place, with some judicial cutting around the eye drop 'bomb', and something was already taking shape:

The neck and top of a another pipette added as a stern and rudder assembly and we were really getting somewhere:

A further neck section gave it a more 19th Century profile; not bad for a couple of minutes with some scrap plastic!

Then it occurred to me, if I was to proceed with the model as-is, and for the sake of argument, mount it on a classic 1" plastic flight stand, then in appearance, it would by default resemble more an AeroNef vehicle than a submarine craft; so why not have it based as if the hull was actually floating at the water's surface?

After all, in reality, most submarines fought on the surface until well into the First World War, merely using underwater travel when necessary for stealth or efficiency.

The helpful mould lines in the plastic pipette would make it relatively easy to cut in half, thereby providing an instant waterline model, as well as giving you two for the price of one!

Some inexpert hacking with a blunt craft knife, and this was looking the part alright, although somewhat as if it had been hit by an 16" shell....

A slightly tidier view from above should give a good idea of what the finished product should look like; mounted on a thin artist's card base with a watered surface, the Turkish AquaNef 'Osman Pasha' might just become the terror of the Black Sea after all....

At around 80mm long, she should scale in in terms of visual proportions at least, as a 1/1200th

vessel, so barring a Russian incursion from the port of Sevastapol, stay tuned for the finished article in a forthcoming post!

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!