Thursday 9 December 2010

Small Scale Naval: Generic Dockyard


The recent successful construction of Fort Humpter had me thinking what else I could add in terms of scenics for the various Small Scale Naval projects that I currently have under my belt. Given that this is a range that now covers everything from 1/4800th Napoleonic to 1/3000th Pre-Dreds via 1/2400th Pacific War and now ACW Monitors, I wanted to have something that was generic enough to be of use to all, and whilst it might horrify scale purists, would make use of various buildings I had collected in scales between 1/3000th to 1/900th.

I decided to go for a Dockyard scene that eventually could sit on some coastline terrain pieces, and would allow the depiction of various eras in a general way.
The starting point, as always, was an amalgam of various bits of card and scraps, to be initially populated by some dock buildings that I obtained long ago from Navwar when ordering for the 1/3000th Boxer Rebellion Naval project, alongside some miscellaneous spars, timber and boxes, etc from Langton Miniatures in their 1/1200th range:


Navwar's 3MH5/5a Sailing Era strips of Store Houses and extensions, as well as the 3MH6/6a Workshops, made for a good base of various types of building, placed amidst the detritus provided from Langton's M47 Dockyard Misc. pack - overall not mixing too badly in purely visual terms.

These base pieces were then reinforced by the following motley crew:


In the foreground, we have three of Irregular Miniature's IKS10 2mm single house models, here with a 'Tudorised' paintjob that was originally for the 2mm ECW project.
In the centre, from Navwar's 1/3000th Harbour Pieces, the 3MH7/7a 20th Century Factory or Warehouse, and the Oil Tanks Group, which are somewhat basic, but paint up well; and finally in the rear, some of the smaller items from Langton's 1/1200th buildings range, I think here a combination of his M5 and M7 packs.
Adding in these in different combinations, then allows the 'feel' of the Docks to change with the era......


From Sail and Steam:


via Steam:


to Coal, Oil, and the dawn of the 20th Century:


At least that is the plan!

I've also got some small Dockyard cranes and a Coaling Dock from I forget exactly which manufacturer, (Scotia?) and these also might see the light of day once I can extract them from the depths of the Lead Mountain, which should really ensure a good span of possible uses for this scenic base.

7 comments:

  1. Truly a port worth battling over - well done sir!

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  2. Hi SoS,

    What a great idea! I had been giving the subject of riverine style landing stages etc some consideration for my ACW stuff but had not thought it through. I may well have to 'borrow' this idea if I may!

    Well done sir - stunning as ever!

    DC

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  3. Just loverly, man!

    What do you reckon the scale is, more or less? 1/1200?

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  4. Hi guys, thanks as always for the kind comments - I'm pleased with how it turned out, and have now had some thoughts as to how to add in some details - hopefully some removable landing stages, that will again mean different eras can be depicted.

    As to scale, well as usual, a bit elastic, but I guess 1/2400th would probably be closest, with 1/3000th at a stretch? - Just squint when looking at it - that always helps!

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  5. I keep coming back to this for inspiration - thanks very much. You mention above:

    'I've also got some small Dockyard cranes and a Coaling Dock from I forget exactly which manufacturer, (Scotia?) and these also might see the light of day once I can extract them from the depths of the Lead Mountain'

    Any chance of a photo of the coaling dock and some more details of where you got it form - sounds interesting.
    Sensational blog
    Alan

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  6. Hi Alan, thanks for your comment, I appreciate it - the coaling dock and cranes I've realised are from Davco / Skytrex and can be found here as H12 'Coaling Quay":

    http://www.skytrex.com/516/13000th-davco-harbour-accessories/

    You get two pieces in the pack, they're fairly nice with a small stretch of dock, some loading wagons and I guess elevators for the coal - the cranes would fit nicely along the edge...

    I keep meaning to do some more work with this harbour and add some background terrain and islands, but keep getting distracted by other things.... you know how it is!

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