SteelonSandBlog

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: Star Trek WIP sneak peek!

2012-01-05T19:56:00.008Z

Just to prove that I haven't disappeared up my own Warp Core over the festive break, thought I'd post a couple of work in progress pics on the various Star Trek vessels.

Have had an absolute blast painting these; nothing too fancy - quick and dirty as usual, but turning out quite well so far.

The Klingon D7 also is looking good, I think, although the hand drawn insignia is a bit rough and ready - the main stumbling block has been those dratted registration numbers on the Federation ships - both brush and micro-pen drawn ones are not really looking the part - so we shall see how things go over the weekend, and then hopefully some photos of the completed flotilla to follow.....

Year End Greetings to All!

2011-12-31T12:35:00.010Z

"Pedal faster Heinrich, pedal faster - we have to be in England by dawn!" - or something to that effect, anyway....

Just wanted to offer my thanks and appreciation to all those who stuck with the rather slow and spotty progress of the Blog during 2011, and particularly those who signed up as Followers or offered comments on what I was up to.

Various circumstances have meant that I have been unable to offer either miniatures/project work or the Blog much attention over the last six months or so, and I realise that what has appeared is largely as a result of the interest shown by regular readers serving as inspiration, so a hearty thanks to you all.

There is, as always, a lot on the back burner planned for the near future, but I don't want to be making promises I can't keep, so I'll just close the year by wishing everyone a happy and miniatures-filled New Year, and hope to see you all again in 2012!

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: Trekkin' about over Christmas...

2011-12-23T18:35:00.009Z

Well, having found it very difficult in the latter part of this year to concentrate on spending quality time with miniatures, and in particular advancing the various detailed projects I had on the go, I've decided to have a bit of fun and keep things simple to end 2011.

It looks like hulls and nacelles will be a relatively easy option rather than trying to struggle with uniforms and all their accoutrements, so I'm going to indulge myself with some classic Trek, in the shape of some recent Ebay scores and a few craft from Irregular Miniatures.

As you'll see above, I've managed to lay my hands on a FASA style Klingon D7 and D18, alongside a trio of Romulan Birds of Prey, as well as a pair of already painted craft from Irregular's Sci-Fi range - not strictly canon, of course, being the DYO 13 'Black Star Liner', but I think they look good as proto-Romulan ships - perhaps a developmental stage we never actually saw on-screen...

These are countered by three of the Imperial Faction DYE 11, Perry Class Frigate (Revised) from Irregular, which come with separate old-school style warp nacelles, which as you have no doubt noticed, allow for a variety of mounting options.

Above you can see the basic hull with the nacelles mounted three differing ways - from the left, raised erect in classic Enterprise/Constitution Class stylee, followed by a flat mounting with the miniature's saucer section placed upside down, and then a conventional flat mount, probably as intended by the manufacturer. You must excuse the currently rather clumsy looking application of plasticard that is visible in bracing the latter mountings - I found I needed these to beef up the join, which has to fit into a rather small cut-out in the body of the main hull.

To be fair, the saucer section 'underside' of the miniature is a bit rough in terms of sculpting, but I wanted to use one upside down to add to the available range of vessels - all of course are rather on the small side, so definitely in the Frigate category, but then that should make the match-up with the Aliens all the more challenging....

Not that I am in really in a position to launch these into a gaming scenario in the near future, I merely wanted to paint some cool ships!

The timescale for these is very much immediately post 'The Original Series', I think, or at least will involve ships in combat away from the glamour of Kirk's flagship adventures....

I won't be aiming for super-detailing with them - there are some amazingly talented people out there using micro-decals and such like to produce tiny masterpieces, but I'll be happy with something representative and characterful, with any luck.... of course the Ebay finds mean that I can even cheat on the overall painting process, with most of it done already!

Irregular's current pricing puts the DYE11 Perry (revised) at just £1.20 each, which even given their relatively diminutive size, is pretty darn good, considering how much Trek-related stuff normally costs, so I am quite pleased with these 'not-Trek' stand-ins, and will proudly use them to fly the Federa.....ahem, I mean 'Imperial' flag....

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: A Flying Sauce!

2011-12-12T17:51:00.009Z

Well, if not a flying sauce, then at least some flying cheek in presenting a few photos of the quickest and cheapest Fleet Scale Sci-Fi fleet you can imagine - namely Flying Saucers!

Not only are these the simplest of projects, but I can't even claim any credit for either the concept nor the construction - these ships were created by David Crook of 'A Wargaming Oddysey' Blog fame, and merely accosted by myself during a previous Lead Mountain exchange.

David came up with the brilliantly simple and elegant idea of using various makes of flight stand, principally including the GW flying bases as used in Battlefleet Gothic, paired and inverted as 'saucers', topped off with discs cut from wheel sections of cheap plastic AFVs from a boardgame!

On paper, they shouldn't be much to look at, but are so cunningly contrived in reality that even a quick blast of spray black undercoat and some silver gunmetal dry-brush thrashings produced quite a decent fleet in a veritable instant:

Not the finest of photographs, but you should be able to discern the differing types, from large command vessel, fighter carrier (Where David cleverly divided the saucer sections with a plastic slotta base) and plain saucers; a few blobs of various bright colours break up the outline as running lights or perhaps Death-Ray launching ports:

If you have a few such flying bases and stands languishing in your bits box, I heartily recommend this method for creating instant vessels of such an iconic shape - with my leisure time at a high premium recently, these were perfect for the quickest of projects, and the minimum of fuss...

Now, whilst time permits, I'm off to play Invasion of the Saucer Men -

"Keep watching the Skies!"

Back to the Blog: Predreadnought Photos 15: SpanAm

2011-12-01T20:45:00.020Z

Back to the 'Blogface', with hopefully a bit more regularity after a period of enforced absence; hoping to ease my way back in to things somewhat gradually, so please indulge the rather soft post, namely another foray into the Pre-Dred photo collection.

These views are all of Spanish-American War U.S. vessels, and I think are unusual in that they show the ships in their wartime grey, rather than the white peace-time scheme so often seen in photos of the time.

Just to kick things off, a quick view of the vessel that started all the ruckus, namely the USS Maine, seen above in a colourised postcard view in a tragically sorry state after being raised as a wreck in 1911-1912.

The photo is by Harris and Brothers, Havana, and is subtitled "as it appeared at 25 foot level". Sadly, the remains of 36 crewmen were found in the wreck, which was re-sunk having been posing a threat to navigation in her original position.

The always informative Spanish American War website has an excellent article here:

http://www.spanamwar.com/mainsalv.htm

First up then, a close-up from a stereographic view from 1898 by B.L. Lingley of the USS Brooklyn on her return from the war at Hampton Roads . Interpreting colour from black and white photography can be problematic, but I think the white flying bridge is a nice guide to provide the contrast showing the wartime grey; the majority of photos of these vessels seem to be from during the 'Victory tour' post the conflict, when they had been spruced up back in their white, so interesting to get a sense of how they actually went into battle:

Moving on, another stereographic close-up, this time the Battleship Indiana, Photograph by James M. Davis for B.W. Kilburn and Co.

A nice head-on view, an Underwood and Underwood stereograph published by J.F. Jarvis, titled U.S. Battleship 'Texas' in her "War Paint":

(did someone forget to paint the bow torpedo-tube cap cover - or maybe just the sun glinting off of it?)

Finally a fine view, copyrighted in 1898 by Strohymeyer and Wyman, we have "Our Grand Battleship Oregon - aft", again from Underwood and Underwood:

A huge stars and bars flying at the stern, and a lovely angle on those gun turrets too!

More photo-sessions to come during this month, including a Chemulpo special, so stay tuned!

(Just a quick note - not too happy about this new fangled Blogger interface "click on a photo and get a slideshow with small photos" guff currently in operation- don't know if it will work for you, but I find if you position the cursor not on the photo itself, but close to its border and then click on it, you get the old style fully clickable close-up that we all know and love.)

Aeronef: Start of an Ottoman Flotilla....

2011-10-05T06:03:00.020+01:00

So, just what have I been up to over the last month-long drought of Blogging activity?

Well, unfortunately various reasons meant that all things miniature-related took a back seat, and I have to apologise for the profound silence settling over Steelonsand Towers - that is not to say, however, that nothing was achieved, merely that I didn't really have time to document it.

Some small work has been done, although in typical fashion, rather than a stringent effort to drive forward existing projects, it has been a case of rushing off at half-cock into pastures new.

3mm ACW? 1/2400th Ironclads? 10mm French Foreign Legion? 2mm 'TNBT'? Aeronef Megacarrier? Errm - no......how about Ottoman Dirigibles?

These of course came about in the wake of the early progress on the Megacarrier, and I might rationalise them as something that would sit alongside the old 'Weird World War I' project and also provide antagonists for the 'Eagle' itself....

I've got a large amount of Aeronef in the shipyard lead pile, thanks mainly to an influx from the lead Mountain exchange with David Crook of awargamingoddysey, so I thought it was time to make a start on them - oh, alright, I was distracted by their shiny newness....

The Flotilla consists of a mixture of medium types, spanning the Muin-Zaffer Cruiser down to the Sakarya Destroyer via what I think looks good as an older type still soldiering on in the inventory, namely the Assari Shevket.

These have so far have had all the base colours blocked in, and are awaiting the final detailing, weathering and washing. I was toying with the idea of painting in a lot of differing coloured areas on the Dig envelopes to represent a patchwork of repairs - those Ottomans often operating on a shoestring at the dusk of their ancient Empire, but haven't yet done this - not sure how it will actually come across in practise at this scale - might just look messy....

For me, the Brigade Models' Dirigibles have a somewhat counter-intuitively more modern look than the traditional Aeronef types - surely they should be a simpler tech than those whizz-bang mysteriously scientific marvels - (Cavorite, Unobtanium, Liftwood hulls etc versus good 'ole Hydrogen) - so I see these as fitting more into a 1914 time frame than say 1880 onwards.

Does this mean I will eventually be producing ships for all sides in Weird WWI, as well as for an earlier more VSF setting, even as far down as some that will challenge the Nemo/Robur intervention in the War of the Pacific, then yes indeed it does - any excuse for careering about all over the shop and modelling multiple, triple layer redundant armies upon armies....!

In this vein, I've even thrown in a Pirate craft, tentatively named the 'Turk's Revenge', a captured Ottoman vessel that has been pressed into service by Sky Pirates circa 1919 or so, or that might be part of the Megacarriers' complement of ships at an earlier date:

More work to do on all this of course, but in the meantime, here's a quick list of some of the sites I've recently stumbled across and found inspirational for Aeronef-related material:

A great discussion about the science itself:

http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=32240.0

Some Old-school imagineering on this richly resourced page:

http://www.mysterious-island.com/Aeronef/anhistory/anhistory.htm

Some super scratch-building ideas:

http://calvinscherer.blogspot.com/search/label/Aeronef

Irregular Miniature's alternatives to Aeronef:

http://sites.google.com/site/wargamesspot/home/gallery/6mm-wargaming/flying-dreadnoughts

and finally some lovely eye candy:

http://www.ssendam.org/blog/?page_id=160

See you all soon!

Aeronef Mega Carrier Update

2011-08-29T10:40:00.006+01:00

A quick update on the progress of the Aeronef Mega carrier, tentatively named 'The Eagle' (Space 1899 I suppose.......), which has seen a quick blast of spray undercoat, and has had the beginnings of the final detailing.

So far this has included various gun turrets, some of the watch parts, and principally, as you will notice, the addition of the brass propellor booms.

The booms were a compromise, in that I felt I needed something relatively sturdy, but that would still look the part - so I made use of some 38mm size square shoulder Cup Hooks from Homebase. I had to hacksaw some of the threaded screw end off on each, as the width of the hull was restricted, and as yet the Lego plastic airscrews are merely plonked over the upright ends, but I think overall, they don't look to bad - at least they won't need painting!

The various watch part flywheels and balances are principally going to form the basis for various contraptions and lifting gear that will enable the entry and exit of lighter-than-air craft into the carrier bays, as well as for a catapult-style 'plane launcher I am planning for the bows.

Obviously, still a long way to go, and lots more detail to add, but I think given her humble beginnings, we are gradually getting there!

Aeronef Mega Carrier: the monster takes shape...

2011-08-23T18:54:00.012+01:00

The shape of the Aeronef Mega Carrier has been decided, in a move that I know might disappoint some viewers, the final form being that of the whole shebang turned turtle.

I shied away from the perhaps more ambitious acres of flight deck meets city-scape idea, and went with something that I felt had more of a VSF ship-of the-sky vibe, as we see in the photo above, the bare model perched atop a couple of those plastic flight stands.

Rather than abandon the sky habitat idea altogether though, I decided to populate the now bare underside with various gubbins that could stand as the basis for structures and weapons mounts:

I also fitted the docking station for Aeronef to the stern, equipped with a small rare-earth magnet that will meld with those usually attached to my ships - seen here is a proto-pirate dirigible, made from an Ottoman Assari Shevket Dig Destroyer, turned on its side, with the funnels removed and the side-mounted weapon bay serving as an upper gondola:

Also glimpsed in the final shot, a growing panoply of bits and bobs that will eventually populate the model - some amazing Lego plastic propellers that I sourced as spares on EBay, and the insides of a defunct watch, as well as the ubiquitous and very useful spare weapons mounts available from Brigade Models:

There is obviously a lot of work to do, not least finding an effective way of mounting those propellers, but have no fear, all the details will appear here in due course; now all I need is a name for the thing.....Robur had his Albatross.....dare I propose the.......Eagle?

Aeronef Mega Carrier: Upside down again.....

2011-08-11T23:17:00.010+01:00

All this talk of turning my Aeronef Mega Carrier/snap-kit monstrosity hull upside down has got me thinking....(always dangerous).....am I missing a trick here?

The original intent was of course to break away from the modern outlines of the USS Eisenhower base, and create something more charismatically VSF in appearance, when a sudden realisation hit home....

What if I retained the model as conceived, but just turned the whole d*rn thing upside down rather than just the hull part?

In spite of some detailing that would help the craft look older, could I really get away from that tell-tale flat-top look? Merely flipping the model as a whole would take me from this:

To something more like this:

Pretty nifty, no?

Yes, we've lost the acreage of flight deck, and the space available for cityscape-in-the-sky type conurbations has been restricted, but is it just me or does this version look rather better?

Less flat-top and more ship afloat amongst the clouds?

We retain the hangar entrance nooks and crannies, seen here with various 'Nefs and 'planes busting loose, and the original cut-outs for the roller wheels provided with the model allow for some deck-lift action, bringing craft up ready for launch....

I think the flat rim around the hull edge should offer some space for adding weapon mounts, some habitation and other odds and sods, just enough to break up the outline a little - the vast expanse of flat base would now also mean I can affix all sorts of downward-facing gubbins along the same lines - what do we all think - I guess I have to designate this Mad Idea mark II.....

3mm ACW - The Union forever, yes it is taking that long...

2011-08-09T14:57:00.007+01:00

So, just to prove that it is still ongoing in the midst of my other flights of fancy, a quick sneak peek at some very much 'in-progress' 3mm ACW for the Union side.

Not the best of photos, but at least they prove that I have not been neglecting the boots-on-the-ground type projects entirely, during the recent spate of Real-Life annoyances that have cut down my painting and modelling time.

I found the sea of blue a bit difficult to work with on these small sized figures - the lighter Confederate uniforms made them much easier to see and pick out the odd detail - here that has been a bit tiresome for the old eyes....

I've done most of the work, though, on four Infantry regiments, a battery of Artillery and a dismounted Cavalry unit - so just the basing and we should be up to even par with the Rebels - although of course, their bases still need detailing and sealing....

I've also come up with an idea for a slightly different form of infantry base, depicting a column of infantry advancing to contact covered by more skirmishers - so there should be a few of these on the horizon for a sort of phase II of the project, I suppose.

Toughest so far with these little ones, though, has been approximating the flags at this tiny scale - don't you go counting the number of stripes on those Old Glories, now will you..... hand painting is all very well, just wish Oddzial would start on a range of paper flags and banners!

Mad Idea No1: Further Aeronef Megacarrier Musings!

2011-08-07T14:22:00.012+01:00

Following some really useful comments, suggestions and guidance from the kind readers of this Blog, I have had some further thoughts with regard to Mad Idea No1, as I have now decided to formally call it...

The Aeronef Mega Carrier has a sketched out realisation, with some concrete ideas as to how it might appear, and as you can see in the accompanying photos, I've roughed out how the bare bones will look by cutting out the hull and flat-top, and adding a few bits of scrap plastic here and there.

First off, the consensus of good advice is that the Carrier is more a 'City-in-the-Sky', lair of a super villian, rather than the military vessel of any particular faction - its primary character and appearance will be formed from habitation modules and as the mounting point for various fiendish technological devices, (think Tesla coils/Steam driven Mcguffin machines/Death Rays...) rather than merely being the springboard for its complement of aircraft.

Perhaps it might be the base of the Air Pirates, or even the secret lair of Robur himself....

There will be the capability for both runway and catapult launch and retrieval of aircraft, as well as a docking station at the rear for Aeronef and Dirigible types.

The colour scheme will be boilerplate and black - more ironclad than modern warship, and there will be no particular iconography on display - this to allow a shifting identity dependent on the setting - perhaps removable flags might bear the symbol of Robur the Conqueror or the Ottoman Aether Corsairs....

The first concrete decision is that although I am going to retain the full length of the flight deck, I'm going to try and break the modern look by reversing the hull, and mount it upside down, with the flat top on top - the empty hull will be capped by a plain sheet that will have various protuberances affixed to break up the outline.

This should also offer some neat looking habitation and hangar openings below deck level - it's funny, but the uptuned hull on it's own has me thinking that it would be a good stand in for the Nautilus sub as depicted in the 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', as can be seen here:

http://www.modelshipmaster.com/products/submarines/nautilus.htm

Of course, the varied plastic scrap currently randomly placed in the photos is but a pale shadow of the eventual cornucopia of junk that will adorn the final product....

But then this is 'just' a mad idea.....right? Never see the light of day, right?

Well, in typical fashion, it is definitely beginning to grow on me - perhaps this latest diversion will be taking over all other projects.....

Further suggestions and comments will be gratefully received!

Hopefully more updates from the SteelonSand Shipyards to come soon.

Pre-Dreadnought Photos 14: Japanese circa 1900

2011-08-05T21:13:00.012+01:00

Another entry into the series of original Pre-Dreadnought views now, this time with a Japanese theme, after a recent lucky score on a certain internet auction site saw me acquire a number of interesting original photographic postcards.

The cards in this post are all from a series of photographic images taken I think, in the wake of the successful Japanese involvement in actions against the Boxer Rebellion, and date to perhaps 1901 or thereabouts - I think it is likely that the cards themselves were printed later, probably to cash in on the patriotic upsurge after the all-encompassing victories of the Russo-Japanese War, where anything related to the armed forces of the plucky new Colonial power became hot property both at home and abroad.

The images are interesting in that they show the vessels in their true Pre-Dreadnought colour schemes, before the boring grey tones prevalent by 1905.

Above we have a nice characterful shot of the Battleship Yashima, and below, we see her sister-ship, the Fuji, with a clear view of the forward turret:

(Remember to click the image for a Macro view)

The cards do not display either publisher of photographer's information, but all are titled in both Japanese characters and a transliteration in Roman script, so the Fuji is subtitled 'Nippon Gunkan Fuji' - perhaps therefore, these undivided back cards were aimed at a domestic market, bearing the characters 'Hagaki' or postcard on the reverse, as is common to this era.

Next up a nice stern view of the Armoured Cruiser Tokiwa - in my view, pound for pound one of the best warships afloat circa 1900, having been designed by Philip Watts for Armstrong at Elswick:

Her sister-ship, the Asahi - both were damaged at Tsushima, the latter is reputed to have fired the final salvo that sent the Russian Battleship Borodino to her doom:

Moving down the scale somewhat, a really interesting image that must depict some sort of Naval open-day - perhaps directly in the wake of the conflict of 1900? Certainly wish I was part of the crowd headed for a guided tour of the Takachiho on the left, and the Yoshino on the right:

The Takachiho was famously lost during the siege of TsingTao in 1914, having been torpedoed by the German TBD S90.

Next up, the Takasago, with a lovely clear view of the bow crest, as well as a sentry with rifle on the foredeck!

She is accompanied by the Chiyoda, the oldest of the Japanese Armoured Cruisers, and the first to be fitted with 4.7" QF guns:

Moving swiftly along, we have the Chitose - there is a good Wikipedia page on her here, which contains a short film shot by Thomas Edison of her launch!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Chitose

Finally we move on to the little ships, namely a couple of Torpedo boats, first the Shinonome,

of the Murakumo class, based on the Thorneycroft 'thirty knot' design:

Then the Hayabusa, the first of four boats built by Normand in France, which were then followed by a further twelve built in Japan itself:

Both of these class of vessels were particularly active in finishing off the floundering Russian Fleet after Tsushima, and effectively destroyed any hopes that the survivors of the main battle might limp away to fight another day....

Mad Idea No 1: Aeronef Mega Carrier!

2011-07-30T19:29:00.015+01:00

Sometimes playing around with cheap rubbish can be fun. As some eagle-eyed regular readers of this Blog may have noticed, there has been precious little on the wargaming and miniatures front this month, but the enforced lay off has enabled me mis-pend the time by indulging in some definite flights of fancy!

Thoroughly enthused by the amazing work on view over at the Arbuthnot's Aeronautical League of Gentlemen Blog, I've come up with a use for a large piece of extremely cheap plastic tat in the form of a snap-together kit of the USS Eisenhower that I discovered on EvilBay for the princely sum of £2.44.

I had originally envisioned using this for some nifty spare parts for some spaceship scratch-building, but was tempted into Mad Idea No 1, namely an Aeronef Mega Carrier along the lines of the USS Langley by the Arbuthnot boys.

http://arbuthnotsleague.blogspot.com/2011/04/salute-phots-3-deweys-pride-and-joy.html

My chunk of plastic tops out at 24cm long, and could therefore hold a whole Air Wing of Brigade Models' tiny fighters, for example, the VAN-902 Fixed Wing Fighter as we see in their rough state here:

Now the snap-kit itself is, to be blunt, a crime against scale modelling and although from a Chinese company, interestingly the parts are marked internally as both being 'made in Italy' and 'made in Israel'......!

The WHSmith mini marker pens mentioned previously on this Blog are laid out to give an idea of what this monster might look like with Dirigible booms - should it ever see the light of day.

Some suitably VSF-style deck accoutrements should spruce her up a little, although I'm undecided as to whether to actually use the lower hull, as included in the original kit:

You'll note that the kit's maker has given the Eisenhower the interesting aircraft choice of what appears to be SU-25 Frogfoots and GR1 Harriers - or are they the naval version of the YAK-38 Forger? :-)

The Conning tower pieces should at least provide some ready made nautical-looking bits and bobs....

So how might this monster scale out against actual Aeronef?

Well, up against a VAN-2003 Turkish Muin-i-Zaffer as we see above, pretty d*rn big - it's going to need a rather large flight stand of it's own, I think.....

Of course this outrageous example of becoming side tracked away from my more mainstream projects has not progressed much beyond the mad genius cackling stage, but would be a real conversation-stopper should she ever grace an gaming table. In the meantime, though, never fear, I've managed to put a little work into the Union side for the 3mm ACW project, and have been playing around with some Fleet Scale Sci-fi, all of which should begin to appear on the Blog in the coming month.

So, apologies for the recent sparsity of posts, and see you all in August!

2mm Web Resources: Nice shots of a game in progress

2011-06-29T10:00:00.010+01:00

Just a small update to the occasional series on 2mm related things that can be found out there on the Web; this time a great After Action Report with plenty of pictures from Tim Gow's excellent Blog, Megablitzandmore, of Blenheim 1704 in 2mm.

http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2011/05/blenheim-1704.html

It's great to see the little 2mm blighters in use in an actual game - there aren't enough photos available of them in action, as it were - so hurrah for Tim, Martin Rapier and their fellow club members - definitely a set of photos worth a look, if you haven't spotted them already!

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: 'not' Blake's 7 completed!

2011-06-24T19:03:00.016+01:00

I must say I'm pretty excited about these, and was keen to showcase them after an uncharacteristically quick completion; probably down to the sheer 'coolness' of the minis!

So without further ado, some eye candy showing off the Blake's 7 ships from Shapeways, as well as some of the perhaps less important personal impressions as to how they are to paint.

As you might remember, I'd started off with the flat black multi-layered spray undercoat, and then made a sortie against the Pursuit ships as you see below:

First off, I found the textured surface was murder on my brush; small detailed and sculpted-in the-round minis require small accurate brushes, but mine were pretty tired after having moved over these surfaces, I can tell you - some remedial work with washing up liquid and much licking of the brush tips (Eeeew!) was required to get them back in shape after the session.

Secondly, although I always work in acrylic with a wet palette, and mostly start off with a dab of water on the brush, then the paint, and sometimes the merest touch of water again to help flow before applying to the mini, the response of this surface material was frankly, well...weird.

Application of the paint-laden brush immediately resulted in all the moisture being sucked down into the surface - it was as if you were painting onto a sponge. This left the acrylic colour on its own, so more water dabbing was required before you could get a good surface flow going - long, contoured strokes with the brush were definitely out - so a slightly hiccupping progress, but alright once you got used to the instant disappearance of the moisture content.

Having said that, the surface took the colours well enough, with a genuine representation of what was being used appearing - here you can see the Miniatures Paint's brand rust colour brushed over in successively lighter shades, and finally touched off with some Vallejo orange:

I am quite please with how these turned out, I'm inclined to think that I need more surface detailing, and the powerplant/engine areas could do with some attention, but I am wary of gilding the lily here - the minis are small and might get a bit overwhelmed with too much done to them, certainly, there has been no final ink wash as yet - to my eye they seem dark and shady enough with that knobbly effect under the colour layers....

I then moved on to the personal ship of Servelan, the female villain of the show, and that all-important white coat - this was difficult to apply consistently over the stippled surface, and at first I was a bit disappointed with the patchiness, but then I realised that if anything, this was rather like a sort of in-built shading or weathering - so not so bad in the long run - perhaps saving me a stage in the process:

Servelan's 'Pursuit 4', a Mark I Pursuit ship modified to be her personal craft:

Moving on now, to perhaps - no, well actually, definitely my favourite craft, the Liberator herself:

The surface of this seems the most pronouncedly knobbly of the three, indeed in close-up it rather reminded me of the clogged-up surface of one of those cloth rollers you used to paint domestic ceilings with, and again, I was panicking about how this might appear under the all-white coat, but overall, I think at normal viewing distances, it somehow conspires to give some more built-in shading and definition, although of course that it hard to take away from the Macro photos seen here.

I had long ago foolishly bought a pot of Liquitex Artist's acrylic called 'Christmas Green', which was only Christamssy in the nuclear accident sense, being a sort of vulgar, florescent swamp colour. I wondered why I had never got rid of it, but then of course, it was because I was saving it all this time as it was an exact match for the green glowing power source of the Liberator!

Actually, for some reason, the 'glowingness' became rather subdued on application, particularly being overshadowed by the inscribed ribs around the globe, but overall, I'm quite happy.

The most difficult thing perhaps, was whether to go the whole hog and hand draw the Alien identification sigils on the three cylinders - they were a feature of the models in the show, but were very rarely visible on screen - in the end I went for it and did my best, and they haven't tuned out too badly:

Overall, then, as I am sure you can tell, I'm pretty pleased with how these went - but that has more to do with the intrinsic nature of the little beauties rather than any ease of process in painting them up. I think as long as you are prepared for a somewhat odd experience in the application of paint, and don't mind sacrificing the odd brush, then the Shapeways stuff is practicable as wargaming miniatures - they are after all, fast becoming the best provider of those obscure craft that we all just have to have.

Anyway, I am thoroughly chuffed with my little flotilla - and I'm off now to Cygnus Alpha to liberate some more freedom fighters!

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: Blake's 7 quick update

2011-06-22T23:58:00.013+01:00

Just thought I'd throw a quick update into the mix with the 'not' Blake's 7 minis from Shapeways. Following some good pointers from CJR over at the TwoThreeSixMM Blog, I went the whole hog and unusually for me, did a spray undercoat. In the past, not being the owner of an airbrush, I've often found the results from this can be a bit hit and miss, finding it difficult to achieve consistent, smooth results, but given the nature of the material here, it was definitely the best way to go.

If anything, I was quite tentative in applying, and went for a lot of rather light sprays rather than one all-over job. The paint I used was described as 'flat black', although in the past, particularly on metals, it has dried with rather a glossy finish, but it was interesting here that the porous-looking white material meant that the final effect was definitely more on the matt side.

I am pleased with the finish so far, as particularly from normal viewing distances, the visible knobbliness of the material is much less pronounced. Of course the real test will be to see how the paints themselves go on over the top - I tend towards an easy dry-brushing of layers of colour on starships, so I don't yet know how these will respond to that. Two of the Pursuit ships will be a rusty scarlet colour, but the other, and of course the Liberator are mainly white - so fingers crossed there!

For size reference, the three Federation ships against the slightly converted Brigade Pacfed Barramundi, and a trio of GZG Kfirs as Colonial vipers:

I normally mount space craft using rare earth magnets, but found that the conformal sculpting and overall delicacy of these Shapeways ships meant that a magnet was looking far too clunky, so opted to place them directly onto the integral flight stand pegs.

I must say that the fit from the pre-cast holes was excellent - but I am trepidatious about how strong a mounting this will serve to be - I am sure I am not alone in experiencing peg break-off due to routine handling of minis mounted in this way.

Finally, again as a comparison of size, that all important Liberator up against the Bergstrom Galactica - Blake's ship runs out at 55mm, with the Pursuit ship to scale at 29mm long:

I am keen to push ahead with these when time permits, so look out for more updates soon - if I can screw up enough courage to paint all those white surfaces!

Small Scale Sci-Fi Reboot: 2mm Drone Army

2011-06-18T15:40:00.030+01:00

A re-visit to an old project now, thanks mainly to the Lead Mountain trade with David Crook of A Wargaming Oddysey, that enabled me to bulk out the available forces in teeny-tiny scale. These came in the form of some of the excellent 2mm minis designed by Jeremy 'Germy' Claridge, available from GZG.

Having had a look at some traditional Alien and Human protagonists previously, I thought it might be fun to have a go at an army of automatons or drones - I was recently re-enthused by the great work being done by Andrew Beasley and his 'Earth vs. the Flying Saucers' project:

http://2mmwars.blogspot.com/search/label/EVFS

His own Human armoured units had me reaching for the brush to do a necessarily basic, but I hope effective scheme to represent automated armour and support, that would be used to counter the heavier weapons and capabilities of an Alien enemy - sort of a 'quantity overcomes quality' type of strategy.

Germy's 2mm is, in spite of its diminutive scale, very clearly sculpted and has bags of character, without looking too cartoonish or overblown. A great example is the GMM10 Medium hover APC - I'm going to use it as a type of 'swarm' light vehicle - here in a couple of colour schemes, so I can do a sort of two-echelon army, brown and green:

Next up some support units - I did little more than the base colour, grey hover skirt outlines, and pick out the weapons; a rather skew-whiff attempt at a sensor window with red stripes over white stands as the marker of their homogeneity:

Moving on to the meat of the units, namely the GMM02 Heavy armour, which on my terms serves in a more medium role:

These are backed up by the GMM01 Super-heavy, probably closer to heavy for my purposes:

I reserve the moniker Super-heavy in this case for that other amazing sculpt from Germy, namely the GMM CYB1 Cybertank - I figure this army of diminutive drone vehicles will need a Drone Controller - it could even, in an Ogre style, be an artificial intelligence in itself, not necessarily crewed, but would obviously need to be much more hardcore than its tiny minions:

As you'll notice, I've made my own interpretation of the Cybertank - Germy's version can be found at the GZG website, but they kindly provide the whole in what is effectively kit form, with all the various turrets and weapons separate, allowing you to go wild with your own versions:

I threw in some plastic tubing from an ink pen, and a radar/comms dish from who knows where to mark its role as controller, oh and plenty of guns and of course the land-train style missile carriage to go along too:

It will be a while before I have time to get these guys based and furthermore re-boot the original small scale forces I did some time ago, but I thought a quick effort would encourage me to get some work in wherever I could - obviously the Cybertank is next on the list.

Just one slightly left-field idea occurred to me whilst I was working on these - the shape of the Heavy Tank in particular got me thinking.... a very quick and rough paintjob later, and we maybe have some re-booted maniacal pepperpots on the horizon too.....?

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: 'not' Blake's 7 ships from Shapeways

2011-06-15T10:51:00.030+01:00

I'm vey excited about this - being of a certain age, I am old enough to remember arguably one of the best Sci-Fi series ever to grace UK television, namely Blake's 7. Created by Terry Nation, the originator of the Daleks, it told the tale of the adventures of a rag-tag band of ex-criminals, adventurers and freedom fighters, and their struggle against the evil Federation.

Move over Star Trek - forget Firefly - this was the real deal - wobbly sets and ropey special effects- yes, but also probably one of the wittiest and most mature scripts ever seen in the genre, as well as having a candidate for one of the most evocative theme tunes ever to grace a TV show.

Moreover, it gave us the easily one of the best, unique and charismatic spacecraft designs ever created, namely the 'Liberator' or Deep Space Vehicle 2.

This was an alien craft found empty and drifting in space, that was acquired by Roj Blake and his band of freedom fighters as their primary weapon against the Federation.

Now many moons ago, Corgi Toys produced a rather cute diecast model of this ship, which you often see for sale on EBay, but it is rather on the large size for Fleet Scale gaming, so imagine my delight at finding some 'not' Blakes 7 contenders amongst the output of Shapeways in the US.

I am sure most of you have seen the increasingly interesting Sci-Fi related productions coming out of the various design studios over there, but this was my first experience at ordering from them, and I have to say I was quite impressed. More on that experience later, but back to the ships in hand.

The Liberator was designed by the renowned Dr Who set designer Roger Murray-Leach, and built by Space Models of Middlesex in the UK, with detailing by Martin Bower - I believe two models were created for the filming of the show; some great shots can be seen here:

http://martinbowersmodelworld.co.uk/liberator-blakes_72.html

and a fan site has the low-down here:

http://www.btinternet.com/~blakes.seven/main/Hanger/Liberator/body_liberator.html

Of course, no heroic protagonist is worth his salt without a worthy nemesis, and the Liberator was most frequently at odds with the Pursuit Ships of the Federation - again, from the excellent fan site:

http://www.btinternet.com/~blakes.seven/main/Hanger/Pursuit_Ships/body_pursuit_ships.html

So, I just couldn't resist the LRV-7 Insurgent and Alliance Pursuit Frigates from Admiral Duck Sauce's shop:

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/admiralducksauce?sg21257%5Bpage%5D=1#sg21257

Ordering online was a breeze, and a flurry of confirmatory and status update emails from Shapeways themselves meant the overall experience was smooth and definitely rewarding!

A fourteen day or-so wait, and I received a lovely package from the US via UPS.

The miniatures were in individual bags as you see in the photo at top, and were well protected by packing within the box - a good thing, as the material these are made of is extremely light, and I would imagine on the fragile side. Here's a photo of the two ships together for scale:

As you can see, the 'White, strong and flexible' material has a rather porous-looking, slightly rough surface - I'm yet to throw any paint in their direction, but I imagine they will be pretty thirsty - looking close, the knobbliness is apparent, but at a visual or gaming distance, I am sure it will not be noticeable - the proportions, clarity of sculpting and detail are all excellent - as you can see in this view of the underside, showing the precast attachment holes:

The only wrinkle in the whole process was that of the three Pursuit ship types, one was missing part of the rear engine drive detailing.

I could have made a try at geting a replacement, but given that this would mean missives back and forth to the US, I decided to compromise and accept it as-is; in any event, I wanted one of the trio to represent the white ship of the Liberator crew's arch-enemy, Servelan, so this can be made unique by removing the small strip of rocket motors and re-applying it to the centre - no great loss.

Apart from this small kerfuffle then, I would be pleased to recommend Shapeways for those hard-to get or otherwise unavailable ship miniatures - they are flying a bit close to the wind copyright-wise, but with my avaricious gamer's head on, I can certainly see around that!

It might be a while before I can get some paint on these little beauties, but in the mean time, for those of you who might want to wallow in some nostalgia, or for those who haven't a clue as to what I've been going on about - have some fun looking at these Fan vids on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnautWFuEnQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuNdPgM8eY&feature=related

Remember - 'it was acceptable in the 80's!'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cEsAX4xaFI

:-).

Aeronef: An alternative source of Dirigibles

2011-05-28T16:05:00.013+01:00

I must start off by declaring that this idea and the resulting post is a complete and utter piece of plagiarism, in that it is stolen wholesale from the recently formed Arbuthnot's Aeronautical League of Gentlemen Blog, that was launched in the wake of the truly stunning Aeronef game put on at Salute 2011.

I am sure most of you have seen the photos referenced on YIAWWS and over at TMP, with some truly mouth-watering Aeronef modelwork and construction, with hyper-detailing and superlative paint jobs by the team involved.

http://arbuthnotsleague.blogspot.com/

The Blog features some more great photos, and explains the process behind the detailing as well as describing the building of the US and Japanese fleets, including the scratch-built Carrier, the USS Langley. Personally, I can't wait to see more from these guys, but in the short term, something caught my eye that I have thought would bear repeating - namely the intriguing use of a certain brand of highlighter pens to form the dirigible component of the Carrier.

These were made from WH Smith brand Illumo markers available in the UK, and look amazing in situ, forming the core around which the stunning model was built, so it wasn't long before my hankering developed into a headlong rush down to the High Street.

I came across the packet of 5 markers for £1.99 in my local branch - at 0.40p a pop, not a bad price for some ready-made Aeronef hulls!

The markers measure in at a smidgeon shy of 60mm in length nose to tail, and are 23mm at the waist, with lovely tapered contours and a couple of conformal holes in the cap that are rather reminiscent of torpedo tube openings.

I'm obviously not too fussed as to their performance as pens, but they certainly got the old grey matter whirring when it came to their scratch building potential.

Here's an example beside one of those Revell Minikit Hindenburg models:

Then against one of Brigade's Assari Shevket Dig Destroyers from the Ottoman Air Fleet; probably its closest contender in terms of shape from amongst the commercially available models:

Next beside the larger Muin-i-Zaffer Cruiser:

So these are certainly no lightweights, and would obviously be the base for some pretty big craft, probably why the Arbuthnot boys used them for their Carrier.

With this in mind, I dug out a couple of Sci-Fi flat top pieces that I obtained amongst a job lot on a certain online auction site, and haven't yet found a use for, and ended up throwing them on top:

I think with some suitable VSF-themed additions, and of course a small complement of fighters, these would look pretty spiffing; see the other version below:

I'm not really in a position as yet to make much of these, as my Aeronef Fleets, in the most part obtained via the enormous Lead Mountain transfer that took place with David Crook of 'AWargamingOddysey' fame, are still on the back burner, but I'd thought I'd flag up the possibilities, and encourage any who might be interested in the further adventures of the Arbuthnot chaps to support their fledgling blog, I am sure there is some great stuff to come from them in the near future....

Colonial French Photos 2: Artillery

2011-05-24T09:13:00.019+01:00

Another instalment of original postcard views as part of the nascent 10mm FFL project, this time around a look at some contemporary artillery in action. I've yet to really get to grips with painting the excellent Pendraken 10mm figures beyond a bit of undercoating here and there, so I'm hiding my blushes with some eye candy - that might at least inspire me when time allows!

Above we have a cracking photo from a 1912 postcard by J. Boussuge of Casablanca, which incidentally bears the postal cachet of the 3rd Regiment de Spahis, and as the title suggests shows a pair of 65mm mountain guns and an interesting group of onlookers circa 1911.

I would suggest from the insouciance of the group, there is probably little combat occurring - more likely training, but an interesting photo, nonetheless.

The gun in question is likely a Schneider-Ducrest model 1906, more on which can be seen here:

http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/Canons/ImagesCanons/France/Montagne/FCSchneiderDucrestDraguignan.html

That page is from a rather awkward to navigate, but nevertheless rather excellent website which has more French artillery photos than you can shake a stick at, conveniently not just in France, but at locations in various countries and former theatres of conflict - well worth a browse if you are interested in early 20th Century artillery of all nations.

http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/plateforme.html

Next up, we have a view of the classic model 1897 75mm cannon, the 'soixante quinze' of legend - here looking somewhat bedraggled - have those blokes hung their washing out on it?

I suppose this photo, by Landraud of Casablanca, does say they are 'au bivouac', so we shall forgive them their mess - then again, interesting to see a group actually on campaign, rather than posed in parade ground finery....

Moving on, we have a more conventional image, by J. Guilliane - a click to enlarge will reveal the solar helmeted head of an officer just in front of the horses at left, and interesting to see Greys pulling the limber there, too - quite flashy for a Colonial Artillery battery....talking of grey, this picture, I think, pretty much settles the argument as to to the colour of French artillery tubes and carriages in the Colonies circa 1900 to 1914 - at least it does for my limited scope, anyway! Some sources talk of green during this period, but I'm going to plump for the classic grey all over, as so nicely illustrated here.

Next up, a rather stirring image by P. Grebert, part of a series showing crossings of the rivers at Bou Deraa, and the progress of the 'Colonne de Fez' circa 1910. This image is interesting in that it enforces the fact that although we strongly associate the Foreign Legion and Colonial Infantry with the campaigns in Morocco, most artillery was provided by metropolitan artillery formations of the main army - hence the crossed cannon badges so obvious on the solar topees of the gunners here:

Finally, just for fun, we see the artillery of the enemy, in all its splendour and magnificence - quite the heavyweight competition, eh?

Well, actually, in this postcard view by J. Boussuge again, we have some likely heritage or hubris artillery - namely obsolescent guns gifted by various Europeans when courting the Sultan, who installed them in a shore battery at Casablanca, more to show off than to offer any realistic resistance to the pre-Dreadnought navies of the Colonialist Powers, I think....

These particular guns obviously came a cropper during the spot of bother in 1907, when the rather inconvenient massacre of nine Europeans meant a spot of interventionism by the Cruiser Galilee - I say inconvenient, but I'll let you judge for whom - given that it allowed the further encroachment of European influence on the already tottering Sultanate....

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=BOPT19070809.2.36

In some posts to come, once Real Life allows, I'll be looking at how I'll be representing these guns and others using the available ranges from Pendraken, as well as hopefully doing some painting at long last...

A bientot!

2mm: The Next Big Thing....

2011-05-24T09:11:00.028+01:00

After an enforced hiatus here at SteelonSand Towers, with 'Real Life' doing its level best to intrude upon all things Blog-worthy, I thought I'd get slowly back into the groove with a number of posts having a look at what ideas are currently on the table, even if it is empty of actual miniatures!

As it looks like there will be little time even in the coming weeks for the physical work of producing more little men, ships and planes, I'll be throwing up some ruminations on the shape of future projects, alongside posting some more bits and bobs from the photo and postcard collection that might be of interest.

So first off, as the title says, what will be 'the next big thing', (or TNBT as I call it) project-wise using 2mm minis?

I'm currently exploring a number of options, and thought I'd mull over the pros and cons of the shortlist.

First off, I had mentioned that I was considering moving into Napoleonics with a view to meeting the 2015 anniversary of Quatre Bras, oh, and that other battle, what was it called...Water -something?

This is still a serious contender, in that it's an era for which I currently have no armies in any scale, but I am also baulking at taking it on for the very same reason - it is a really serious contender - a whole mindset, culture and world of research required.

It would certainly play to the strengths of 2mm minis - no button counting or lace-colours needed here, but I am somewhat bogged down in thinking of how the depiction of various formations might play out - I like big bases with big units, but even at a battle the size of QB, the sheer scale of things is pretty daunting.

That might move things toward bases depicting brigades or even divisions, but I'm not really used to that level of abstraction, as most of my prior projects are around the regimental/battalion level - I'm thinking of the 2mm FIW Quebec 1759, for instance...

Certainly, Irregular's Horse and Musket 2mm range is pretty much set up with Napoleonics in mind, and you could get a lot of bang for your buck, with generic units being applicable for other campaigns. I have a history of going for the slightly more obscure and quirky for most of my projects, so would I be selling out by getting into 1815 and all that? There is a nagging doubt that once you start, it's the kind of era that would push all other projects to the side....

Next on the list is a favourite of mine, the Crimea, or predictably perhaps, the old chestnut of The Charge of the Light Brigade. As a relatively limited campaign it does not have a high profile in Wargaming in any scale, but has plenty of colour with Turks, Sardinians, Cossacks, the French, and would give one the opportunity, if using 2mm, of fielding the whole 673-odd of the Light Brigade in 1:1 figure scale!

This would be somewhat tempered by having to also produce the whole of the Heavy Brigade, and a truly enormous number of Russians - perhaps even here, a larger unit level would be more reasonable - I am thinking of the brilliant efforts of Nik Harwood in particular here, who produced some cracking bases of his own:

http://nikharwood.pbworks.com/w/page/7825407/2mm-Gaming-

Amongst all of his great work, his Crimean ones are definitely my favourites - but could I replicate this with my tendency toward larger bases - the Light Brigade might require five separate 80x40mm bases on it's own... that's a lot of cavalry, and when you factor in the Russians, well....

Then again, looking back at my own humble ECW Royalist Naseby army, a whole heap of 2mm Cavalry can look pretty spiffing:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DSmFIIS7WgA/SjTl76kzSgI/AAAAAAAAAj4/fLR-4w-v2Tw/s1600-h/SANY0177.JPG

Outside of the campaign itself, there are of course options to field many of the mid-nineteenth century protagonists in other guises, and a bunch of hussars, lancers and the odd 'Thin Red Line' would easily translate into mobile speed bumps for some early Land Ironclads, and the French uniform would be current all the way up until 1915!

In a similar vein, I had of course originally tabled ACW as another alternative, but the challenge from Oddzial Osmy's 3mm or 1/600th has effectively seen that off - when I eventually get around to painting up some Union, and finishing the CSA bases, I think these will see a lot of action, particularly with the back-up of the expanding range of scenery from Steve over at SPC.

Next on the list was something a bit quirkier, that would dovetail really well into an existing project, namely the Pacific War of 1879. This has been getting a lot of attention in larger scales at the moment, and has an interesting mix of multi-coloured Peruvian, Chilean and Bolivian forces, that again might see double duty as VSF armies - some blue coated, red trousered regiments are dopplegangers for contemporary French, for instance, whilst some Bolivian troops have a distinctly Prussian feel....

This would enable me to match the land campaigns with the naval angle using my existing 1/2400th vessels, whilst giving enough latitude to play around with some more 'imagineered' nations and combatants.

Having mentioned Prussians of course, one cannot help but move on to the Franco-Prussian War itself, again perhaps a somewhat under-represented era in the Hobby, which would have similar strengths to those mentioned above; generic-looking 2mm units giving plenty of cross-over potential, whilst providing an interesting base of Historical battles to try out.

So, the 'short' list is actually not all that short - and I have left the best (or craziest) for last - namely alongside 'TNBT' we have the option of 'TWDT' - namely The Whole Damned Thing.....!

This would see a whole cross section of 19th Century forces produced spanning say, 1836 to 1880, where generic bases of Lancers could be Uhlans or Cossacks - Hussars can fight for many nations, and kepi-wearing infantry can be just about anything I might like to call it....

There's still a lot to think about, and I'm a way off from actually putting pen to paper to organise armies, let alone put brush to mini, but whichever direction it takes, this will be the biggest thing on the radar in the next couple of years -until the next bright shiny thing comes along, of course! :-)

In Memoriam....

2011-04-20T21:09:00.008+01:00

Elisabeth Sladen 1948 ~ 2011

Forever Sarah Jane Smith

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/20/doctor-who-fantasy

Apologia

2011-04-14T19:55:00.007+01:00

Hello All, I just wanted to let regular readers of the Blog know that unfortunately, due to a hefty dose of 'Real Life' affecting all hobby-related activities, there are extremely slim pickings on the wargaming and modelling front here at SteelonSand Towers.

Apologies for those that have been following the regular and recent projects, but to be honest, it looks as if it will realistically be next month before things return to a semblance of stability and normal service may be resumed.

In the meantime, feel free to have a browse around in the archive, as it were, but fresh posts will probably not appear for a couple of weeks as yet; never fear, there should be some interesting bits and bobs on the horizon, including Fleet and Small-Scale Sci-Fi, some more 3mm ACW, an update on the Colonial French in 10mm, and hopefully some other new projects!

So once again, apologies for the lack of posts recently, but bear with me, and things should return to normal soon.

Science Museum Ship Models Part 2

2011-03-23T00:14:00.001Z

More views from the Science Museum Model Ship collection now, with a firm bias toward the interesting group of early Torpedo Boat Destroyers that are on display.

As I said in the previous post, these models cover a whole range of subjects, but are united in the attention to detail and quality of materials that have been used to build them. I suspect that some of them may have been made as engineering models or apprentice pieces at a time contemporary with the original vessels, so here and there, and with the best will in the world, there is the odd piece of sagging rigging, or pile of dust that has invaded the display cases. To me though this just adds to their charm, whilst the unusual subjects, particularly those pictured in this post, are really interesting.

I find especially with torpedo craft of the pre WWI era, it is sometimes difficult to get your head around exactly how and where various torpedo tubes and launchers were positioned, as well as the secondary armament of quick firing guns - this is often of importance in various rule sets - so these models are a real boon!

To whit: HMS Daring of 1893

HM Torpedo Boat No 17 of 1907:

The amazing looking HMS Lightning - just look at the rails for loading the torpedos - now that's got to be another good candidate model for a VSF scratch-build!

and even more obscure, a Rumanian Vedette Boat, built in Britain for service on the river Danube in 1906 - equipped with a movable arm spar torpedo/ explosive charge dropper at the bow, and torpedo dropping gear at the sides - would have loved to see this in action!

Next, the super-fast Russian Sokol, again built in Britain:

and finally, just for variety, the Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese Box Battery ironclad, reminiscent of the vessels used in the War of the Pacific, 1879:

Now that's enough photos - go and enjoy them yourself next time you're in the vicinity!

3mm ACW: Quick Cavalry base update

2011-03-17T17:12:00.008Z

A quick update on the progress of the 1/600 ACW Cavalry figures, which have now joined the Infantry in having been based and given their first basic application of flock; this has put me in the position of being able to turn to some detailing and clearing up when I next have time, and hopefully turn out some pics of all of the units looking pretty together!

This time around, I smeared the filler onto the artist's card first, hoping to be able to 'bury' the individual bases more into this surface, and then placed the individual figs into a blob of superglue gel that I had placed onto some aluminium foil in advance, before transferring them to the base and squidgeing them down.

This seated them a little better than those I had done before, but I think this is going to come down to a matter of practice - too much filler could end up overflowing the bases of the figures and ruining your paint job, too little and they become little islands...

As I discussed in a previous post, I wanted the Cavalry base to represent a deployed group, with a combination of mounted and dismounted, taking advantage of the great little riderless mounts and the horse-holder figures:

So up front, then, we have a skirmish line of kneeling dismounted, with their mounts to the rear, and to one side, directed by a single mounted command figure, a few riders galloping into position. This is on a 50x50mm base, giving it the same footprint of the Infantry regiments already completed. I was quite pleased with this, but somehow couldn't ignore the urge to do an exclusively mounted unit, so went for a dozen riders on a half-sized 50x25mm:

The photos aren't the best, but I assure you that when painted up, the Cavalry figs look pretty splendid, with even sword scabbards visible in the sculpt - my paint job was deliberately on the simple side, but if you so desired you could put a lot of detail in with horse cloths and saddle colours etc....

Again, there is more work to do to get these finished, but I think once this is done, I shall move across to the Union side and get up a comparative force of a Brigade or so each plus supports, so that they will be nearer to gracing a tabletop in the near future than my usual sprawling 'must paint whole armies before gaming' approach.

To round off, a view of a Command stand glimpsed in my last post - a couple of foot commanders out front (These could probably do with a nice 1/6ooth map table between them), a clipped down standard bearers strip for the identifying flags, a pair of mounted officers, and of course those horse-holders to complete the picture, all on a 40x30mm base:

Hidden Gem: Model Ships at the Science Museum

2011-03-13T16:01:00.003Z

A recent trip down to South Kensington in London, and the triptych of V&A, Natural History and Science Museums saw me stumble upon some hidden gems amongst the latter's collections.

Tucked out of sight at the furthest far end of the second floor away from the entrance, the Science Museum has a large collection of model ships in a number of scales, principally around perhaps 1:50th or so, spanning maritime history from the ancient to modern.

I say modern, but the reality is that in stark contrast to the cutting edge high-tech parts of the main museum, this collection is charming in its old-worldliness, with most of the exhibits having been built or donated in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries.

Away from the bright lights of the main halls, which of course have much to entertain the scientifically minded, and more importantly away from the hordes of over-excited kids, is a small haven of naval-themed tranquility, which has much to interest those who have a yen for military shipping.

There are of course, models of civil interest, but I'd thought I'd share some photos of the more interesting naval items to whet your appetite, and recommend it as a good place to duck into if you ever have to visit the museum with family in tow; leave the tiny terrors to explore the cutting edge stuff and indulge yourself in yesteryear.......

Above we can see the charismatic HMS Arrow of 1871, which was from a class of river and coastal gunboats equipped with a 10inch MLR gun that could be raised and lowered to aid stability - the weapon had to be layed by using the rudder, so rather like a maritime version of a self-propelled gun, I suppose - anyway it would make some nice inspiration for a VSF craft, I think!

From the small, we move up the scale a bit to HMS Monarch, and below her the HMS Queen Elizabeth and then the Vanguard of 1944, the last battleship built in Britain:

These are all cracking models with a lot of detail, and are accompanied by others that include everything from 17th century galleys to Napoleonic warships and beyond - there is even a nice submarine display:

Of course, I made a beeline for all things Steam and Sail and Pre-Dreadnought in nature, but I think you could find something of interest whatever is your period of choice.

Highlights for me included HMS Eclipse of 1867:

HMS Albion:

and the pre-eminent ship of her time, HMS Warrior:

I thoroughly recommend discovering this somewhat dusty and neglected corner of the museum for yourself - I know I certainly enjoyed these relics of a gentler age whilst the rest of my party was in the 'Interactive Internet Interconnectivity Zone' or wherever......

Stay tuned for some more pics from what was on show, next time with Pre-Dreadnought era torpedo boats very much to the fore.

3mm ACW: Basing Progress

2011-03-06T18:34:00.018Z

The basic work on the Confederate 1/600 Brigade has been done, so I thought I'd share some photos and my thoughts on the process so far.

Previous 2mm projects have seen me using a method with pre-painted bases, where the blocks pretty much sit on top, patches of small flocking adding ground cover, but for these larger 3mm figures, I wanted to texture the bases, and to some extent, disguise the integral base parts of the minis, particularly where individually clipped figs were being posed.

I wanted, however, to avoid swamping the strips, so rather than using 'basetex' type materials or sand and PVA which are useful for 6mm sizes and above - I went with a smooth fine surface filler that was coloured with the same paint I used to shade the bases of the strips, smeared onto 1.6mm depth Artists card, as usual, backed with magnetic tape.

In order to accurately place the strips, I used a rough paper template to go around the base, and with a superglue Gel, stuck down and aligned the figures where I wanted them. I found it was useful to sort out the figs onto another empty base in the formation required, making sure that they were all facing the right way around, and then move these individually to the actual base I was sticking down onto.

I then worked the surface filler around the minis using an old brush and small scrap of wood.

I found that the original white colouration of the filler meant that the bases dried lighter than I really wanted, and also on examination, I realised I had been a bit too timid in the depth of the filler around the strips - I was concerned not to slop any over onto the figs, but this meant that the bases are still a bit visibly pedestal-like; something I can hopefully correct when doing the final flocking of the bases.

Eventually, I went around the strips and individual figs with a darker earth tone before moving on to the first layer of flock.

This is the first rough and ready application, where using PVA glue diluted with water, a mixture of colours was laid down:

The strips are still somewhat isolated-looking - the perennial difficulty of working the glue up close without actually ending up brushing it onto the figures themselves, but the gaps will be filled on a later application, probably with some small-sized static grass.

I'm currently working on painting up some Cavalry to accompany this Infantry Brigade, so will wait until those bases are at the same stage before finalising the whole lot - some small logs, bushes and maybe some trees, etc, should help liven things up a bit....

3mm ACW: Cavalry preview photos

2011-02-19T15:33:00.017Z

Thanks to an ultra-quick despatch by Fighting 15s, I am now the proud owner of some of Oddzial Osmy's new 1/600th Cavalry releases, so I though I'd share a few close-up pics and my initial impressions.

First off, I must say that I decided this time around not to invest in one of the Cavalry mounted command packs, as I was over this month's budget for Wargaming purchases already, and further I think I'm more interested in deploying the Cavalry more in a mounted infantry style than honest-to-goodness 'arme blanche' horsemen.

As before with the infantry, on receipt, there was the visible venting remnants to the bases and figures, but these snapped off without trouble, and although there were some very small areas of flash visible between the legs of the central rider on some of the strips, these were easily poked out with the point of a needle file. Again, the overall proportions and poses are nicely modelled, although there is a slight difference in 'heft' between the three mounted Cavalry poses.

Above we can see either side of the Cavalry strip, with the two riders at the front wearing soft hats, whilst the one at the rear is ostensibly in a kepi. I found that the modelling of the latter headgear is rather slight, and therefore a bit underwhelming - viewed from some angles he looks almost bare-headed, but he does have a nice open pose and a good visible sabre.

I think the central figure is probably the best overall, with the final figure being a nice active pose, but having the horse in mid-gallop means the footprint seems smaller than the other two, and this is noticeable on the tabletop from above - visually this tricks you into thinking he is slightly smaller than the others.

All of the Cavalry are in motion, rather than just standing, which I rather like - but if you're looking for troopers at rest this might be an issue.

Above we can see a strip next to an Infantry one - noticeable is the greater thickness of the base of the latter, but I think overall, given the difficulties in sculpting anything this small, Marcin has done an excellent job keeping the relative sizes in proportion.

One thing to say is that I found that at least in this batch, the nice deep grooving between the mounted figures meant that the strip could be snapped apart into individuals merely by hand - no need for clippers or cutters - or any worries about kamikaze flying minis disappearing off the workbench!

Another view below shows a strip next to a Command one:

Once more, pretty good proportionally, even with the slightly thinner base part, and the galloping pose versus a static one.

Next up then, the excellent Dismounted Cavalry strip, which includes a single mount with nicely modelled saddle gear, the same with a kepi-wearing Horse-Holder, and two dismounted skirmishing figures, both kneeling, with weapons that are noticeably shorter than the Skirmisher strip's rifles - Carbines of course!

The front figure wears a this time clearly visible kepi, and the rear one a soft hat - I found a slight tendency amongst the strips for this figure to have a bit of flash - but again this was easily removable.

The skirmishing figs here could of course be used to augment those already available amongst the Infantry ones, and the Horse-Holder and two mounts hold out some nice opportunities for adding to command stands as points of interest - the Holder himself is a little on the short side given that he is meant to be standing, but not so much as to be disappointing.

The horses are once more nicely scaled alongside the mounted Cavalry ones; I think I will be doing a base that has a mixture of all the above types - a troop of dismounted figs backed by their mounts and Horse-Holders, with to one side another troop of mounted figs galloping by - that's the plan, anyway - a 50 x 50mm base to match the Infantry ones - it is tempting to do an exclusively charging Cavalry base, but in terms of a balance between the Historical reality of ACW Horse and gameplay, I think this will, as it were, cover all bases - showing the more common deployment as mounted infantry, with just a suggestion of their ability to fight from the saddle.

A well-referenced discussion of how ACW cavalry were deployed and used, with particular reference to their choice of weapons and tactics can be found here:

http://mmu.academia.edu/GervasePhillips/Papers/131153/Sabre_versus_Revolver_Mounted_Combat_in_the_American_Civil_War

Really interesting stuff...

Finally, a quick size comparison photo in the light of the recent announcements by Steve over at SPC Wargame Scenery that his exciting 3mm Buildings will soon be available both at PicoArmor and Fighting 15s - something I'm definitely looking forward to; here an Infantry strip up against the ubiquitous Monopoly buildings - they would certainly provide an alternative, or could bulk out a town alongside a few 'character' properties:

Information on the real deal can be found here:

http://wwwspcwargamescenery.blogspot.com

I hope to see a lot more to come from them - I have a hankering for some split rail or 'snake' fencing too - just can't imagine how to scratch build this in 1/600..... :-)

3mm ACW: Some quick thoughts on base sizes

2011-02-15T14:26:00.026Z

Having completed a few more 3mm ACW Infantry strips, I've been giving thought to how I might base up this new size of figures. I think to give meaningfully-sized units without having enormous bases, as well as factoring in as few cuts from the strips as possible, I'm going to be looking at Regimental level gaming. This should give enough room on each base for a few skirmishers out front as well as some mounted officers to the rear, with hopefully a nice vignette style look.

The simplest cut I've found so far, given the slightly fiddly nature of chopping up such small strips, is to be some surgery on the Command stands with integral flags - it is relatively easy to lop off two pairs of standing Infantry from one end, these can then be added in to the front and rear ranks, evening them up, whilst a whole Command group strip is then centred in the front rank of the unit, giving a total of 36 figures. (8-8 +2 and 8-8 +2)

I'm letting these practicalities dictate the way the project is to shape up, rather than getting bogged down in too many attempted rationalisations of the depiction of historical formations and units - normally the bane of most of my nascent projects!

This means a total of two Command strips and three standing Infantry strips are required to create each unit, therefore making good use of the fifteen strips per pack, without making each unit look too small, thus undermining the point of using small scale minis.

The length of this two whole strips plus two-figure line comes out at around 48mm, so dictates the width of the base at 50mm wide.

I've found a similar measurement in depth allows enough room for the skirmishers and mounted Officers, giving therefore, a nicely square base.

So with 50x50mm bases sizes, I can represent a whole Regiment of around forty three figs on each, whilst I'm thinking of using a conveniently half-depthed base for other units such as artillery:

I've found that the separate crew figures mean that for even just two guns, you need quite a lot of width on which to mount them; you could cramp them in tightly around the guns, but I think visually, some space around each cannon will allow a more natural-looking random application of the individual crewmen, as well as perhaps avoiding a less realistic muzzle-to-muzzle deployment for the guns.

The current lack of limbers, horse teams and caissons in the range neatly solves the problem of needing more depth to the base, and having two-gun batteries will mean I can get quite a lot out of the pack of thirty cannon!

I was also thinking that this half-depth base of 50 x 25mm would be useful for a Sharpshooter type unit, with a random application of approximately fourteen individual skirmisher figures, whilst also giving a use for the standard bearer side of the Command Group strips that have lost the four Infantrymen at the end:

So, how will all this fit in to rules and game-play? I must confess, I haven't thought too far in that direction, having in typical fashion been more enamoured with the figures themselves rather than thinking in overarching Project terms, but it occurs to me that something like Polemos would fit the bill...

Whilst I'm at it, I must just point out that Fighting 15s here in the UK now have their stock of the new miniatures, alongside the new Cavalry releases, and say that never fear, as soon as my order arrives, I'll be posting my thoughts on the mounted and dismounted figures.

http://www.fighting15sshop.co.uk/american-civil-war-757-c.asp

As to the making and modelling of the bases themselves, I'm going to have to experiment a bit with that, as following some useful advice from Thaddueus of 'Lead No Bleed' and others, both on this Blog and elsewhere, I've got a number of options for making this as relatively stress free as possible, or at least effective in turning out a relatively large number - so check back for some updates on this to come...

3mm ACW: Painted WIP photos and thoughts....

2011-02-12T12:14:00.030Z

Having been encouraged by the level of interest in the new 3mm from Oddzial Osmy, I threw caution to the wind, and threw some paint in their direction.

Being a lazy sort, rather than spend a lot of time and thought forming units, I merely had a go at the strips that I had prepared for the Review, in order to get an idea of how they would handle, instead of committing to large scale project work.

Thanks to the advice of Thaddeus over at 'Lead doesn't Bleed', I had a good idea of how I was going to paint these, namely with a generic, fast approach, that would hopefully play to the strengths of such miniscule minis, and produce large numbers without too much hassle; well, we'll see how far that plan "survived contact with the enemy" during the course of this post!

Perhaps out of force of habit, I started with a black undercoat, minded that in the past this has helped to pre-shade, if you like, smaller figures, and remove the need for later washes etc, that can often overwhelm minis under 10mm in size.

As this was going on, I began to immediately regret it, as it seemed that all of the detail was disappearing, so I panicked and threw on a drybrush of medium grey, which seemed to restore the equilibrium of things, although of course meant that we had already done two stages of process in what was only supposed to be the opening.....ho hum.....

I then went over the figures using a lightened shade of the same grey, to give a more Confederate look - this was supposed to be another drybrush-style action, but actually ended up being more lining and dotting, even highlighting things like raised details - picking out trouser legs, tunics, hats, that sort of thing.

Overall, things were beginning to shape up, but it was all looking a bit bland, so I pushed ahead and did the bases of all the strips in a light earth tone, and to some extent, this helped the individual figures to 'pop' a bit more as I worked on them.

So, I thought, a few bits of detailing, and we're done, right? Well, having flustered and fiddled my way through the hand-drawn flags, I followed up with dots of flesh colour for hands and faces -fairly straightforward, if a little time consuming, but then no more than I would do on say 2mm minis.

I realised, then, of course, that it helps to do the rifles before the hands, so then went on to outline these in a chocolate brown - hopefully this doesn't make it seem that they are hefting telephone poles, which can often be a danger in sculpts of this size....

Next up, and remember, we are quite a few stages into our alleged 'just a few steps' approach, I had to grasp the nettle of those darned cheapskate Confederate butternut homespun style vagabond uniforms.

Out came the 000 brush once more, and in varying shades of brown and the odd bit of blue, in went more trousers, hats, jackets and blanket rolls.

At this point, I was getting much more pleased with the results, but was painfully aware that we were most definitely in 6mm and above territory in terms of stages/time taken.

So, a quick once over and done? Unfortunately not - for the life of me, I couldn't resist popping on some colours for pouches and knapsacks, not to mention the artillerymen's ramrods, buckets and of course red kepis here and there..... I consoled myself by doing this all quite haphazardly, but then that of course meant that quality control overall wasn't quite what I would normally aspire to.

Another thing was that I was reminded of just how fiddly it can be when working on individually clipped small-scale figures - it's really the only way to get to all sides of a mini- I always stick mine down onto paintsticks using double sided sticky tape - but the artillery crews meant a whole gang of teeny-tiny figures to work on; I think this would impact any ideas I had for using a lot of individually clipped figs in future bases - the cast together strips are so much easier to do.

I think the main impression was that with the level of detail that the sculptor has provided, it was just not meaningful to shy away from detailing the various accoutrements, and therefore add to the painting stages and time taken - the artilleryman's ramrod, for instance, or the infantry blanket rolls, would just look odd if they were not picked out.

The Command figures in particular, would stand a lot of detailing, even when done quickly, and again I think this speaks for the theory that these 3mm minis are a bit too detailed when placed against their 6mm cousins - same amount of effort to make a meaningful paint job, smaller impact overall. Yet then again, look at the price differential - 120 infantry for UK £3.00 - 2.5 pence a figure, versus for instance, Baccus 6mm at 96 for £5.50 - 5.7 pence each....

So, what about the visual impact of these 1/600th versus minis that are twice the size - well, I haven't painted enough of them in numbers that would illustrate - obviously the bases of the strips need finishing, and I have to think about basing, etc so it is as yet quite hard to say.

Do I like them? - absolutely yes, and I think the more generic uniforms one tends to paint for the Union side would help with a quicker paintjob, but I think they still require a commitment of effort that puts them closer to 6mm than the 2mm I am more used to.

I think if you are new to the smaller scales, and would find 1/900th too small, and are looking to work cheaper than 1/300th, then these would certainly not disappoint - the charge of 'blobby blobs with no detail' could in no way be laid against these top-notch sculpts.

So will my North Carolina good 'ole boys be joined by more of the same, and might the Union also make an appearance? - again, absolutely yes, but I'll be setting aside more time than I had originally thought would be needed in which to produce them.

3mm ACW Update: Photos of Newest Releases just published

2011-02-08T18:26:00.008Z

Just a quick update to let everyone who enjoyed the previous review post know that just as I was hoping for future releases, my wish was instantly granted and PicoArmour in the U.S. currently have some pictures of the hot-off-the-press Cavalry, Cavalry Command and Dismounted Cavalry (with Horse-holders!) on their website:

http://picoarmor.com/new_category.php

All look really good, very much in the vein of the previous releases - only drawback for me is that I understand Fighting 15s here in the UK are currently out of stock.... :-(

New 3mm ACW from Oddzial Osmy: Review and Comparison

2011-02-07T14:51:00.047Z

Well, as a self-confessed small scale fanatic, I suppose it wasn't going to be long before I got my hands on some of the new kids on the under 6mm block, in the shape of the latest 1/600th American Civil War range from Oddzial Osmy. Now ACW was a possible candidate for a future project using 2mm figures, but having seen the preview photos on TMP and elsewhere, I couldn't resist buying a few packs to see just how these would shape up against the old favourites, and so I thought I'd give a run-down of my impressions, and also how they compare to existing ranges in the 1/900th to 1/600th area.

First off, I got my order via Fighting 15s here in the UK, who have an excellent website with some great illustrative photos of the various minis, and must be given special mention in that Ian Marsh over there was extremely helpful after a Post Office mix-up led to my package being returned to the Isle of Wight - he sent it back on its way lickety split after an emergency phone call - so top marks for service to them!

http://www.fighting15sshop.co.uk/american-civil-war-757-c.asp

The minis from Marcin at Oddzial might be familiar to the growing group of gamers that are using his WWII and Modern ranges, but were new to me outside of what I had seen on Web; they arrived in the ubiquitous ziploc baggies attached to some clearly labelled branded cards, and immediately impressed with their overall proportions and clarity of sculpting in spite of their miniscule size. Below we see a representative group in their 'fresh-out-of-the-packet' state:

(All photos on this Blog should be clickable for an enlarged, Macro view)

The first thing to note is that whilst there was a total absence of flash, there were venting remnants from the casting process as you see above. These were easy enough to remove using some small sharp scissors, however I must say that as these minis are made with some very high quality metal/pewter, they are very hard - so I mean sharp scissors or snips! For filing away any small nubs of these vent left-overs where present on the base, a good needle file was also a help.

As you can see, the cannon pack, which contains thirty guns, one smoothbore, one rifled on each of fifteen strips, also require cutting to separate, although an integral groove makes this much easier.

So just how big are these little guys? Well, that's something I hope to illustrate throughout this post - although it's important to note the background squares on the cutting mat are 1cm by 1cm, here's a quick reference with a stand of the 1/600th infantry up against a strip of SYW grenadiers by Heroics & Ros; ostensibly 6mm, although better described as arguably closest to 1/300th in scale:

Each 3mm strip from Oddzial is a smidgeon under 20mm wide by 3mm in depth; the figure height including base I would say is 5mm, not including any protuberances such as the rifle muzzles or flags; the standard bearer measures for instance just under 8mm from bottom of base to top of flag.

Given this size, the sculpting quality on display here is second-to-none, the figures have decent human proportions, and the weapons, heads and headgear are not over-exaggerated or ugly, which can sometimes be an issue in smaller scale minis.

Below, on the left, the front view of an infantry strip, and to the right the reverse of same; you will immediately spot blanket rolls, canteens and ammunition pouches:

Overall, given the somewhat scruffy nature of field uniforms during the ACW, I applaud the decision to mix both soft hats and kepis amidst the strip, however this might not be to everyone's taste - at least it is true to say that such consideration to detail in minis so small shows great credit to their sculptor/designer.

The overall rear of an infantry strip once more:

and then the rear of the command strip which includes two standard bearers, an officer with sword, and a drummer - who, by the way, is the only figure which is wearing a backpack:

I'm trying not to trip myself up with too many superlatives here, in that the very nature of painting and using such small scale miniatures might be anathema to some, whilst I am something of a fan of them to begin with, but objectively, these are great creations given their relative size.

So just how do they compare to similarly scaled figures, particularly when seen up against the long existing 2mm or around 1/900th ones, and more importantly, the two perhaps less well known ranges that are ostensibly 1/600th in scale.

Both Peter Pig and Tumbling Dice in the UK offer some infantry or ground troops to complement their respective ACW Naval and multi-period Aircraft collections, although as I have discussed in previous posts on this Blog, the scaling is rather individual to each manufacturer:

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/search/label/Peter%20Pig%20Range%207

Below we can see the new 3mm ACW cannon on the left, next to a 2mm gun from Irregular Miniatures, and on the right, the artillery group from Peter Pig's range 7 which is advertised as 1/600th - (that's a UK penny in the pic for scale):

I should say that the Peter Pig piece has had a light ink wash just to improve the definition in the photos; I think the artillery from the two 1/600th manufacturers would sit pretty well alongside one another - the integral figures on the Peter Pig mini are definitely shorter and less well defined than the new Oddzial ones, but the thicker base part would offset this to some extent.

An illustration of the artillery crew strip from Oddzial; again, excellent and vivid sculpting - ramrod, bucket, lever and ball all visible - it is important to point out that if you intend to use all five figures per each gun crew, then with 15 strips per pack, they will of course only match 15 guns, so you'll need an extra pack to accommodate the thirty cannon in the gun pack.

Next a quick look at the skirmisher strip, which again does not disappoint in terms of looks, and would give some 1/300th models a run for their money - they come in a lateral strip, with useful grooves between each figure base to allow ease of cutting into individuals; a figure with rifle levelled and one loading his piece both have soft hats, the two firing figures are in kepis - it is true to say that the kneeling firing figure does 'stand' a little tall in comparison to his counterpart, but given their overall size, this is not too detrimental:

Now the command strip, again with a 2mm Irregular mounted group for reference, and then, on the right, another command group from Peter Pig:

The latter piece has a nice animation, but is somewhat scruffy - the size difference with the new 3mm is more pronounced, I think. Oddzial's figures are again mounted so that they may be cut as individuals, and although my photography might not do them full justice, they are a useful trio, and bode well for the sculpted, but not yet in production cavalry figures that I believe are to come soon.

Talking of cavalry, just as a size comparison, let's see them up against the others - at left, a 2mm strip from Irregular, at the rear a cast-together cavalry block from Peter Pig, and at right a cavalry strip of riders in shako from Tumbling Dice - definitely the largest of the bunch:

The infantry proportions are similar, when seen against the other three companies' output as above:

The cast-together block from Peter Pig is clearly smaller than the new figures from Oddzial, and at the rear, somewhat indistinct in my photo, the 'giants' from Tumbling Dice; this impression is reinforced when comparing the skirmish strips/groups of each:

Of course, the figures from Tumbling Dice and Peter Pig were never designed as centrepiece parts of their ranges, but are there to augment their otherwise finely scaled ships and aircraft, whilst the 2mm from Irregular is obviously in a whole league of its own; I think the new 3mm ACW stands apart in both intent and delivery, and probably would bear better comparison against 6mm figures under such criteria - certainly, your intentions and commitment to a scale as a gamer is important here, whether choosing generic stands that represent large formed bodies of troops, or preferring a more detailed look whilst retaining 'Mass' on the table top.

Talking of which, I thought I'd mention one small wrinkle that struck me when ruminating on just how one might base up these figures; for me, the appeal of smaller scale figures is their ability to depict large formations in a more realistic manner, so as an example, I initially thought of employing a 60x30mm base with 6 of Oddzial's strips across its width as maybe a regiment.

What immediately stood out to my eye was the fact that the design of the command strip means that the standard bearers with flags would be off-set to one side - I'm no expert on the drill of the period, but to me, these always look best centred whether in the front or rear ranks - more Hollywood than Historical, perhaps, but just what I'd prefer:

This brings up a slight problem, for when the straightforward solution of cutting the strips to size, and enabling the individual placement of figures comes up, you run into the very hard nature of the metal they are made from - without a groove, these Line strips are little beasts to cut accurately, particularly when trying not to damage the figures either side.

A compromise, then, might start off looking something like this - but I think you have to address the question as to whether this level of surgery is what you want from minis that are supposed to be easier to prepare, paint and field than their larger scale cousins:

I think that slight quandary brings me to my overall impression of these new figures - their excellent detail is both their strength and perhaps their weakness - as a small-scale gamer, I'm not too proud to state that the smaller mini can often be a short-cut to fielding Wargaming units without the 'master-modeller' touch required by the larger scales, and it might be said that the level of individual detail on these will draw one inexorably into the latter approach.

What makes these new little guys most attractive is their quality, but at the same time, might this very quality mean that you would spend as much time on each individual figure as you would prepping and painting a larger, say 6 or 10mm one?

This would somewhat undermine the generic mass approach, but depending on the individual, could be very rewarding - there's no doubt these would look great well painted en masse, but would they be as forgiving of a more 'broad brush' approach that makes 2mm so easy to field?

So, that's ten out of ten for their quality and overall value - currently £3.00 per 120 infantry figures, but a lesser score for me in terms of how they might actually figure as a practical project - I can't help feeling that the level of detailing required to really do them justice would equal that of 6mm, with a slighter table top presence, and am worried that the generic painting approach suitable for mass 2mm blocks would be rather letting them down, or indeed, would show up my cr*ppy painting all the more clearly!

I can't really find it in my heart to be overly critical, in pretty much all respects these are a class act, and I guess if you baulked at the tiny size and lack of detail of 2mm figures, but wanted a way to have a lot of units without the price of 6mm, then these would definitely fit the bill; just can't help feeling that for 6mm adherents, they might be a little too small and slight when deployed.

So, will I be plunging into 3mm ACW on the back of these little beauties, well...I'm still thinking about that one - I've heard that the 3mm scale buildings from the revivified Simply6 will likely be available from Fighting 15s and elsewhere in the future, and have thought that some of the output of Peter Pig's Hammerin' Iron range could also augment what is available, whether scenery, artillery or even shipping....and of course if Oddzial bring out the cavalry figures soon, and hopefully a pack of horse-holders, and some zouaves, and....uh-oh....they might be hard to resist, in spite of my reservations.... hey, I'm as much of a Lead Mountain builder as the next man.... :-).

10mm Colonial French: Pendraken's French Foreign Legion

2011-02-03T17:30:00.020Z

A look now at the building blocks of the new 10mm project, namely the French Foreign Legion figures from Pendraken. These are somewhat enigmatically sold in packs of ten of each figure pose, rather than the thirty or so of their standard packs - economies of scale, I s'pose, given the likely demand for these 'niche' minis.

http://www.pendraken.co.uk:80/Inter-War-c18/French-Foreign-Legion-1910-20s-sc120/

They can be found amongst the InterWar ranges, and come out at a fraction more expensive than the majority of figures, at 11p as opposed to 10.8p each. (Taking into account the recent price rise.)

The size, heft, and definition of sculpt are in synch with the rest of Pendraken's output, and in general are some pleasing troops to look at; above, from the right, we see the FFL4 Officer, then the FFL2 and FFL3.

The officer figure's pose is either a nice active one, or rather quirky, depending on your point of view - I'm a little undecided - certainly, his revolver/pistol is a little stubby and under-defined, but on the other hand his Patrol Dress jacket is spot on. The standing and kneeling/firing figures are both also good, although there is a little scruffiness in the sculpt to the front - that said, the weapons are well proportioned (lacking only bayonets-hard to do in this scale), and the accoutrements, water bottles etc are easily visible.

These are obviously optimised for a later period than the one I will be working on, but luckily the uniform is still representative enough of a wide range of Era - any differences should be hidden at this small scale.

These line figures are supported by a pack containing three Hotchkiss machine guns (FFL5) - definitely outside of my time frame, but also some nice sculpts, with separate loader kneeling to one side:

The Foreign Legion had deployed a number of marks of similar machine gun in North Africa from as early as 1907, including Puteaux and St. Etienne - I'm not sure yet if I can squint my way past the obvious differences from the model depicted here - I'm also erring on the side of giving the Moroccans a reasonable chance at taking on the French firing line - I think MGs would be getting a bit WWI for my tastes.....

The next, and arguably the best figure from the FFL range is the FFL1 advancing pose - we're into full-on Beau Geste territory here, with great proportions and detail - bayonets fixed as we see below next to the officer for scale:

An illustration of how good a sculpt this is, is the characteristic French knapsack equipment, which to modern eyes seems ludicrously impractical - a wobbly tower of blankets, mess kit and impedimentia that is often a feature of contemporary photos and illustrations; just how you were supposed to march in the heat with it, let alone fight wearing it, I don't know, but it is faithfully reproduced here - even down to the two tent poles that made up part of each section's bivouac tent:

Finally, we have a look at the first of the kidnaps or captures from amongst Pendraken's other ranges, that will fill in the gaps and enable the deployment of forces that will suit the 1905 to 1914 timeframe.

In 1881, Colonel de Negrier had experimented with Legion 'Mounted Companies' to provide tactical flexibility - Legionnaires mounted on mules could catch up with faster moving raiders, and also support quicker-moving cavalry without being outpaced. These light groups rapidly became the norm in the desert expanses of Algeria and Morocco, with one mule provided for two men - this meant one man was always ready to go into action, and only one man in eight was needed as a horse holder.

Pendraken has recently introduced a range for the South American Pacific Wars of 1879 onwards; this includes a nifty mini mounted on a mule wearing kepi and havelock, SAP12, as we see below:

This should be just the ticket for mule mounted Legionnaires, and extend the reach of the Colonial French force quite considerably - not so much 'March or Die' as mules to the rescue.....

So then, these are the starting point in terms of figures, and will hopefully be hitting the work bench soon for some test stands to be done. In coming posts, I'll be looking at Cavalry, Artillery, naval troops, and of course those all important Moroccan types, so stay tuned!

Small Villages from Mighty Empires.....

2011-02-03T10:09:00.023Z

Always on the lookout for teeny-tiny gaming related items, I managed to get my hands on some of the GW Mighty Empires game pieces that were recommended to me as a result of the long defunct 2mm Fantasy project seen elsewhere on this Blog.

A job-lot going for pennies on EBay, these pieces are readily available as spares both there and probably at a 'bring and buy' or garage sale near you - with Fantasy on the backest of back burners, I was looking at these with a view to augmenting the 2mm buildings available from Irregular, and provide some bombing targets for Aeronef, etc.

The principal pieces are a castle/fortress, a hill-top town, and small village with stream, which of course relate to the various factions in the original game. The village pieces in particular are rather nice, with quite a lot of detail for something that is barely 24mm in diameter - there's a steepled church, a mill with water wheel by a stream, and a couple of other smaller buildings - painted up quickly, they look don't look half bad - the only niggle, I suppose, the circular hole in the centre that was meant for the faction flag insert - left open here for demonstration purposes, but it could obviously be filled easily enough:

They sit very well alongside the pieces from Irregular, and are about the same scale, I would think - of course, they're generic, but provide some variety from the metal pieces we are so used to:

In terms of how they scale alongside each other, the castle, which has a great hulking Tolkeinesque quality, is probably the largest, (close to 1/900th?) the villages are in the middle, alongside the Irregular pieces, and the town is very much at the smaller end of things. (1/1200th?) In any event, they give a range of visual appearances that might fit in with, say, Land Ironclads, or more traditional Historical 2mm; certainly, if you can pick them up cheaply, you might insulate yourself against the inevitable recent price hike in metal miniatures.

As an aside, Mighty Empires also offers some other funky stuff, to whit a very impressive dragon, a huddle of medieval types made as a 'flat' group, and a rather excellent medieval cog warship - forecastles agogo!

Quite what I'm going to do with these, I can't imagine, although the dragon would easily grace any larger scale Fantasy project, and I guess the cog could draw one towards 1/1200th galleys etc.

I also managed to talk myself into picking up some other plastic mini castles at the same time - these are spares from I believe the Disney version of Monopoly, that as you can see, go pretty well alongside the aforementioned fortress - they might offer some conversion possibilities - sawing of a turret or two here or there - Hmmm, perhaps that 2mm Fantasy project might see the light of day once again after all......

In any case, I am sure that some of these pieces will be appearing in some guise or another on my tabletop - they certainly look all right being menaced by Robur's Albatross here, anyway:

Colonial French in Morocco Photos: Part 1 Native Troops

2011-01-25T22:52:00.054Z

I thought I'd begin introducing the Colonial French project by sharing some of the Postcard photographic views that I have been acquiring as part of the background.

Having got bitten by the collecting bug whilst looking around for images of original colour schemes for Pre-Dreadnought shipping, I have in a similar way started to gather original

postcard views of the French in Morocco between 1907 to 1914 or so, mining a rich seam of contemporary postcards that acted almost as reportage at the time, lionising the efforts of the Colonisers as they sought to devour a further slice of North Africa.

Just a note, similar to the Pre-Dread pics seen elsewhere on the Blog, about copyright; Most of these views were taken a century or so ago, and in some cases it would be difficult to assert the rights of the original publishers or photographers - it is not my intention, however, to subvert or ignore such rights by posting them here.

I would ask anyone who wishes to view them to use the images for private research only, and not seek to disseminate them for commercial purposes, etc - I will try and give the photographer or publisher's information where possible - although I own the postcards, I in no way own the images themselves....

So, at the top, we see a long line of Tirailleurs Algeriens in this postcard view dated 1910, trudging across the desert at Taghit - a close inspection will reveal some French officers on foot and on horses in the middle distance in summer dress.

The Tirailleurs, light infantry by name, but effectively used as regular Native infantry by the Armee d'Afrique, were in battalion strength in Morocco, but seem to have been mainly deployed in detachments to support other units.

Their distinctive Zouave-like uniform consisted of a red 'Chechia': a low, fez-like hat with a yellow tassel, often wound around with a white turban at the base. The jacket originally had been a short waist length pale sky blue one, but by 1907 I have seen indications that khaki ones were in use, (the French themselves adopted this gradually from 1903) although it can be difficult to tell from B&W photos - certainly summer uniforms of white cotton were also to be seen, the trousers surmounted by a red wound cummerbund or sash.

Below we have a view of a Mountain Artillery Column at M'Kirt, probably from a later period, perhaps 1914 or so - a mixture of dress is apparent, particularly in the single file of figures at the rear, and note the French officer mounted on the white horse at the front, probably wearing the puttees that had begun to appear in the French army as 'patrol dress' from about 1905:

Next up, a platoon moves off at Djebel-Nser, a view by Maillet photo of Casablanca. I think it is likely these are Tirailleurs Senegalais, similar to their Algerian counterparts, but with a characteristically dark blue jacket and lighter blue trousers, that again by 1910 or so would have seen khaki bottoms appearing. It's interesting to note the figures amidst the file likely wearing the M1890 helmet, made in a khaki material:

Moving swiftly along, we have an image by Boussuge of Casablanca of a parade of 'Police Infantry' from 1909, no doubt a unit that came about as part of the efforts of the French Military Mission to create more modern and viable forces to support their candidate as sultan, rather than the traditional mob of supporters that formed the 'Askar' - more a sort of rampaging feudal militia than an army. The native officer out front wears Zouave-like garb, whilst the French military instructor can be glimpsed at left:

Arriving at Casablanca, a unit of Tirailleurs Senegalais and their officers, in a card view dated 1907, again by Boussouge. The Senegalais were officially part of the Troupes de la Marine, so overseen by the Ministry de la Marine, as most Colonial French forces were, so were not part of the Armee d'Afrique - I suppose that's why their original uniforms were the dark blue seen here:

Their uniforms, however, began to change over to khaki in the early part of the twentieth century, and that is what we see here in another view of a similar unit - interesting to note that the officers seem to have retained the blue uniform - or perhaps this is merely for a dress parade - their helmets are the white rather than the khaki here:

Next up, we have a unit of Moroccan Goumiers, native cavalry raised to support the French forces, more in the sense of an irregular gendarmerie than an official military unit, but they were accompanied by a cadre of French officers and NCOs.

This view is by Levy & Neurdein Reunis of Paris, and is interesting in that whilst most sources state that the Goums were mostly without uniform, wearing their own native dress, it appears that as time went on, uniforms were introduced to some - although this photo might date from a later period, perhaps just post WWI; certainly they have at least retained the traditional camel hair cloak, or 'haik':

Finally, another unit of locally raised cavalry, this time some Spahis Algeriens, which were a more formal military force of which there were four regiments of approximately 500 men each. They wore a rather 'Arabian Nights' uniform of bright red jacket over pale blue trousers and a red sash, topped off by a bright red, white-lined cloak, although this was no doubt somewhat changed in the field when they took on a more rough and ready appearance.

This can be seen here in this view, again by Boussuge - they are also apparently defeating less formidable foes than the militant Moroccans, namely a herd of sheep - although the drawn sword of the officer points to that fact that they can also be slippery customers - his dress is interesting - obviously a form of patrol uniform made up of locally obtained clothing:

These units should give great flavour to any army of the period, and I'm looking to use the Spahis and Tirailleurs from Pendraken's Franco-Prussan War range to depict them - there's certainly plenty to contemplate as to exactly what shape this will all take, so stay tuned for more to come as the project develops....

New Project: 10mm Colonial French in Morocco

2011-01-23T18:55:00.011Z

So, New Year, new project, right? Well, given the amount of half-formed and yet to be completed ones littering the pages of this Blog, probably not such a good idea..... oh well!

Putting this to one side then, I thought I'd introduce the strongest candidate for the title, and hope to make a calm and considered progress with it across the course of 2011 - to whit, the French Colonial Conquest of Morocco using 10mm figures from Pendraken.

Although they have yet to make a mark Blogwise, I've had wide experience with the 10mm of this excellent company, principally for Early Crusade armies, and have always fancied a go at some of their more modern figures, and in particular the small range of French Foreign Legionnaires - growing up with Beau Geste, and all those Hollywood movies about the Legion, this was always a unit I've longed to see grace the tabletop.

Rather than go for a strictly Arabs in bathrobes versus blue-coated soldiers type of thing, I thought I'd complicate matters and get far too ambitious, and try to anchor the project in a real historical setting.

Thanks to the fascinating Douglas Porch book, "The Conquest of Morroco", I'm looking to do units that would cover the turbulent period between say, 1905 and 1912, which featured all sort of actions and troop types, from Tirailleurs Algeriens and Senegalais to Chasseur's d'Afrique and beyond, with very much a skirmish framework in mind, hence the decision to go 'big' with 10mm.

In postings to come, I'll be looking at the figure choices for all of the different types, including, (thanks to the advice of Dave and the gang at Pendraken) a number of kidnap victims from the Franco-Prussian War, Sudan, North West Frontier and even WWI ranges.

I'll hope to introduce the whys and wherefores of each unit, and will be backing that up with some views from the SteelonSand postcard archive, with photos from the time.

Eventually, and with a following wind, I'll also chronicle the actual painting and basing of the little Legionnaires and their opponents, and draw on some readily available internet sources to support it all.

Rules wise, I'm looking at a couple of options, with TSATF at the top of the list, although I'm in no hurry to push ahead with gaming with these - in the spirit of a less butterfly-minded Blog, I want to try a slow build up and make this something that might serve as a backbone over an extended period..... that's the theory, anyway!

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: The Fleet limps along.....

2011-01-17T17:03:00.013Z

Aplogies for the long New Year hiatus in posting here; I wish I could say that this time had been filled with much prep, painting and photography of miniatures, but unfortunately this has hardly been the case - the shameful neglect of the Blog down to 'Real Life' intruding and keeping me far too busy. Not that I am complaining - no real dramas, but definitely a dearth of Wargaming-related activity, I'm afraid....

What has left the workbench is very much in the way of some small progress with the BSG themed fleets, and the happy discovery of my rare-earth magnets has lead to a pulse of activity, including the fighters and various other craft. For what it's worth, I thought I'd share some pics of how this has been going, first up some civilian freighters and transports:

For reasons that will become evident later on, I decided to add the Brigade Models Bantu Destroyer in with the civvies rather than positing it as another military type, and also flipped the Irregular ship seen in the middle of the photo above onto its back - the sculpt is somewhat enigmatic, and I think this way up, it somewhat resembles the Gemini Freighter seen in the original series.

Colour schemes wise, I went for a quite dirty thrashing with various dry-brush colours, overlaid with some detailing of panels, running lights and so forth, hopefully going for a very 'lived-in' and well-used look for these old transports.

The Cylon flotilla is complete for now, with Baseship, two Heavy Cruisers that I am calling the 'Styx' Class, and those GZG fighters masquerading as the iconic Raiders:

The fighters are mounted on the Brigade trio fighter stands, with magnets stuck into the hollow space underneath, and then a corresponding magnet fixed atop the plastic flying base.

I found this was a very frustrating and tricky procedure, as whilst Brigade's own craft mostly have a small depression which matches the upright nubs at the end of each of the fighter stand's arms, those of GZG do not, so much fiddling and swearing with rapidly-drying super-glue was required. I eventually, in fact, filed down the mounting nubs and placed the fighters down flat to ensure a tougher bond.

I had envisioned hordes of Cylon Raiders to accompany the larger ships, but I will definitely need a rest before I attempt this procedure again in the near future..... these will be enough for now!

The magnets themselves I obtained from Dom's Decals, and they are good and strong, and being meant for 1/600th aircraft, are a nice tiny size - the only issue is trying not to mix up the polarity of each pair to be used - I got around this by having a marker pen to hand and colouring the top surface of each magnet as it came off the stack - those for the ships, went coloured side to hull, and then the paired flight stand would have its coloured side fixed upmost to match.

Moving on, we see the two non-canon Cruiser types which I added to beef up the respective fleets, on the left, the Colonial Heavy Cruiser, the 'Charybdis', and on the right the Cylon:

The lighting for these photos has been rather unkind to the finish on both types - the contrast is not really so stark in real life, but you get the idea as to how they match up. I think either craft might have some fighters on board, but to all intents and purposes they are gunships - to take out the opponent's Carrier with heavy weaponry - relatively slow, but very heavily armoured and armed....

Next up, the Cruisers 'Scylla' and Charybdis move forward accompanied by some Colonial Vipers:

These were mounted in the same way as the Cylon Raiders, and were even more fiddly, as the base of each craft is slightly convex, so more filing required. These are nifty little stand-in craft from GZG, perhaps only the downward tilt of the lower wings missing from the original - I quite like them, but those classic red stripes were very hard to do freehand, particularly in order to match up around the tail section - so again, I won't be rushing to do more!

The Galactica Battlegroup, then, in the final days before the Fall of Caprica:

Overall, I'm pleased with how things have gone so far, but am painfully aware as to how much all this has diverted me from my more long term projects, so these will probably go on the back burner from now, given that I haven't even thought about how they might be used game-wise, or even with what rules....

Then again, there are the scratch-built Agri-ship and the Colonial Movers to be done yet......oh well!

Ruminations at the Year's End, and a Vote of Thanks

2010-12-31T14:11:00.003Z

Dear All, just thought I'd close the year with some thoughts on what is to come Blog-wise in the near future, and also give a well deserved vote of thanks to all those who have dropped by during 2010.

I can't say that I have served the dedicated reader all that well, given my tendency to dance all over the place and hop from one project to another, but I suppose that the scatter-gun approach does at least bring in a lot more potentially interesting subjects, even if each proves little more than a diversion!

If I were to make a NewYear's resolution worth the paper it was written on, it would be to make an effort to give a more complete picture of a smaller number of developing projects, rather than jumping forward each time some little progress is made in one area or another.

Quite a lot often happens off-Blog, so to speak, and is normally not chronicled because instead of photography, I've moved on to some priming and prep on other minis - good for lead mountain reduction, I s'pose, but not so hot in terms of chronicling my efforts.

Hopefully, then, I'll be trying a somewhat calmer approach - although I won't promise that there will be no brief and unheralded dalliances with whatever takes my fancy...

Of course, the original intent of the Blog was to act as sounding board and organisational tool, so I also want to do more to showcase those future projects that are glimmering faintly on the horizon. Some are appearing brighter than others, and have quite a lot of concrete research behind them already - so you should see more photos in the vein of the Pre-Dred Pic posts, albeit on a totally different subject in the near future.

To gasps of shock and disbelief, no doubt, I am also thinking of stretching the Small-Scale boundaries a bit by moving into some slightly larger sizes of tiny troops, to whit 6 and even 10mm, that have actually formed a decent part of my wargaming activity, but have yet to see any real representation on this Blog.

2mm or smaller afficionados, though, shouldn't worry, my commitment to the tiniest of tinies remains, and next year should see some further work on the 'TNBT' project - 'The Next Big Thing' which will probably form a long term stream of work involving either ACW, the Crimea or Napoleonics.

I'll close then, by wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year, and by saying thanks once again to all those who have taken the time to read the Blog, and moreover, to sign up as Followers, or discuss it further afield - I really can't say how much your support, debate, criticism and cajolery has meant in motivating me to do more.

So as the Ship's cat aboard HMS Renown wonders just how the crew intend to set off the first of the New Year's fireworks (not with the 15" guns, surely?), I'll sign off and hope to see you all again next year!

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: More BSG Shenanigans

2010-12-29T15:22:00.008Z

In spite of the irksome interruption (Bah! Humbug....) of the Christmas festivities, I've still managed to get myself mired into more project creep with regard to the Fleet Scale BSG vessels - ably aided and abetted by the Christmas sale over at Brigade Models.

I thought I'd share a couple of pics of the completed Studio Bergstrom Baseship, which paints up nicely - I went for a darker drybrush shade to contrast more with the Galactica, and appear a bit more menacing:

One small fly in the ointment has been my complete inability to locate a parcel of small rare-earth magnets that I was going to use for basing the various craft; in particular the fighters, allied with the trio stands available from Brigade - this has meant that they have yet to be undercoated, as this is best done when already glued in situ - fruitless searches amidst the lead pile continue...sigh....

This did not stop me from casting around for some more candidates to beef up each side, which although not strictly canonical, should do the trick; first up the CDSU Chengzu battlecruiser, SFS-503 from Brigade:

Seen above in its straight out of the packet condition, I think when painted up, should make a good fist of appearing as a class of modern Colonial Cruiser alongside the Galactica et al - the nose shape, I think fits the general design concept, and for that matter, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine it with added carrier bays, either.

For the Cylons, I went for the slightly enigmatic Welsh Dewi class heavy cruiser, SFS-821, which I think has a strong echo of the design of the Cylon fighter about it, as well as in the Cruiser class, scaling quite well alongside a Baseship - I think in the series and spin-offs, there are Cylon heavies that are pretty much one saucer half of the former ship, but I think these will add more interest, and have a certain elan:

So then, a little off track from where I wanted to be right now, but I'm sure it won't be long before these new additions join their respective fleets - now I just need to find those "frakkin" magnets! ;-)

Pre-Dreadnought Photos: Part 13

2010-12-21T16:43:00.013Z

A bumper pre-Christmas treat for all you Pre-Dreadnoughters out there, in the shape of another instalment in this occasional series of views from my postcard and image collection. Nothing fancy as such, nor with any particular theme this time around, but just some interesting views from either side of 1900.

Above, to kick things off, a nice posed shot of a Royal Marine crew practising with a 6" gun - no clue as to the vessel, I'm afraid....

Next a lovely shot of the French Battleship Charles Martel, with nifty, almost Art-Deco style font for her nameplate on this post-card view:

A slightly smaller vessel now, in this Gale and Polden postcard image entitled 'A piquet boat armed with Whitehead torpedoes' - I love the Heath Robinson nature of this - I don't know if this image actually shows such a practical deployment of weapons like these, or is merely a view of a test firing; certainly the jack tars belaying the torpedo with ropes don't really make for an efficient launcher!

Belching smoke and with a bonkers level of bow wave, (I've heard of 'running awash', but this is ridiculous...), a German postcard shows just why such attacks were often hit-and-miss affairs - "Target, what target - all I can see is spray, Herr Kapitan!"

Talking of belching smoke, a cracking colourised image from a French postcard by A. Bougault, showing the firing of a 27cm gun; don't know on what ship, but likely a fairly early contender:

Following up, another, more posed view of the loading of a piece on the Redoubtable by Edition Giletta of Nice - some notes on this Central Battery ship can be found here, alongside a slightly different angle photo of this same gun:

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/redoubtable.htm

Continuing with the French, a nicely detailed image of the Jaureguiberry:

followed by the Admiral Aube:

Next, ploughing (literally) her way into the Adriatic no doubt, the Italian Re Umberto class Battleship the Sicilia:

Turning to the East, a nice early image of the HIJMS Mikasa, with a good view of the characteristic identification stripes on the funnels:

She is accompanied by the Chitose; a clear depiction of the Japanese doctrine of lots of Quick-Firing guns, ranged along her broadside:

and finally, that veteran of the China station, flying the flag for the Royal Navy, HMS Barfleur:

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: Galactica Progress

2010-12-17T17:16:00.013Z

The Battlestar Galactica, here in the shape of the sculpt from Studio Bergstrom, is all but complete, so in the spirit of recent posts, thought I'd share the images ASAP - so no one was left wondering how she turned out....

As I thought, the particular mode of sculpting made dry-brushing a dream - if anything, you had to reign yourself in somewhat and not overdo it - the various lumps, bumps, inscribed lines and pits easily picked up the mix of Vallejo neutral grey, silver grey and white that was applied in various quantities and coats - an ink wash then sealed the deal as far as I was concerned.

Detailing used red, orange and a Vallejo brass, dotted on here and there to give the impression of running lights and other illuminated windows etc:

The Drive or engine exhaust areas were done with a swedish blue, then a lightened swedish blue patch in the centre, and finally a splodge of white in the centre of that - this approximates an 'Ion Drive flare' (or some such technobabble), without the need for getting too master-modeller about it - that's not really my style, after all! :-)

The characteristic red coloured recognition stripes on the carrier bays were by necessity, rather roughly lined in - the sculpted surface is just too busy for straight lines - so these had to go in over the top regardless, but don't look too bad at gaming distances.

Next up, I've been considering what else to add in to the Rag-Tag Fugitive Fleet, with the beginnings of some civilian vessels, as well as a further Colonial Military one.

On the left in the foreground, we can see the Brigade Models SAC faction Bantu Destroyer, SFS-630, which is going to stand in as a class of Light Cruiser, to help fend off the Cylons, and next to it two further vessels by Irregular Miniatures:

In the centre, we have the old SH4 Human Cruiser, which should do a good job of representing a transport of some kind, and on the right is the SH1 Human Freighter, which will be, well, a freighter, I suppose...

I've found that my choice of the Bergstrom Galactica has somewhat limited the range of off-the-shelf vessels I can use to support it, as most of the available ranges, such as Hanger18FASA, Orion, Ravenstar, Titanium etc, are built on a considerably larger scale - my diminutive Battlestar will most likely need some scratch-builds to complete the fleet.

At the moment, I'm thinking in terms of doing a Colonial Movers vessel, an Agro-ship, a Mineral ship and probably the Foundry ship, depending on whether I can find some suitably small bits for the usual messy scratch build.

Cylon Basestar and the fighters should be seeing the workbench soon, so more to come on this before the end of the year, no doubt.

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: Quick photo update: Caprica's last Fleet

2010-12-14T19:53:00.012Z

A quick photo update on the Battlestar Galactica Colonial vessels, just to show the direction things are going in; somewhat breathless, I know, but there's just something about these little ships that make you want to press ahead and get them painted.

The Irregular Battlestar is all but done, and the old fashioned 'Gunstar' stand-in from Brigade is pretty much there; Bergstrom's Battlestar has had a base coat of black, and the first rough dry-brush of neutral grey applied.

We see below, then, the pre-Cylon War Nova Class Gunstar, the 'Albion', alongside her replacement in the development of the class, the Battlestar 'Olympia':

With the Olympia, I wanted to pick up on some of the white-with-red-trim vibe displayed on the Colonial Vipers in the original BSG, and following this train of thought, allowed for some more red and white on the earlier Albion.

The larger vessel has suffered somewhat from that bane of the dry-brusher, 'frosting' - probably too much white in the grey, allied with a rather heavy-handed use of the brush - not so clever on a figure, but here, I don't think it looks too bad; an ageing metal hulk that has been round the frozen depths of Space one too many times would look like this -no?

The Albion began with a black undercoat, then a dry-brush of Prussian Blue, followed by another with a mix of the blue and some white, and then finally a light go-over with light grey with a spot of the original blue in it. I wanted her to look simpler, as if from a previous era in terms of iconography, with just the final detailing colours as before - not entirely happy with how she turned out, but not bad given the pace I find myself working at!

Both have had a final diluted ink wash applied, but I didn't want to be too heavy with this, so it is fairly subtle - might add more layers later....

Finally, a closer look at how the Galactica is shaping up, against her predecessor once more:

Obviously at a fairly basic stage as yet, but will be receiving a lot of attention now that the other two are pretty much launched; I found the deep greeblies and pitting that characterise the Bergstrom sculpt quite difficult to work all the base coat into - my undercoat brush is pretty mashed as a result.... and I think I'll have to make the following coats of grey lighter than on the Olympia, to give her the properly modern feel familiar from the series.

So there you go; I'll just sign off with a couple of website links; an academic and well researched discussion article on the names of Battlestars can be found here:

http://www.battlestargalactica.com/outside_docs/bg_outdoc0002.htm

and a lot of amazing general info can be seen here:

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

See you all on Kobol! ;-)

Fleet Scale Sci-Fi: Progress Update

2010-12-12T22:12:00.014Z

A quick progress report on the Fleet Scale Sci-Fi/Battlestar Galactica ships; as you can see above, I couldn't resist having a look at the Irregular Miniatures' DYC8 'Pre-' Battlestar miniature, and in addition have added a new contender for a proto-Battlestar in the shape of an interloper from Brigade Models.

I was thinking along the lines of a pre-Cylon War early Colonial vessel, perhaps we might call it an Attack-star, which served as a prototype for the larger and more capable early Battlestar, which then developed into the classic BSG era 'Galactica' et al.

Rootling around in some recent purchases from Brigade, I remembered the new Pacfed Faction Barramundi Class Destroyer (SFS-730) that I had bought, which had some nice carrier pod style booms - this, with the addition of a small Drive section made from some scrap, will fit the bill:

The Irregular mini needed quite a lot of cleaning up, before I could be let loose with the paintbrush; both the Bow and the Drive section were pretty rough, as you might have seen in the photos in my previous post, and the longitudinal axis of the hull has a raised mould line, but I left this as is, rather than file away any of the detail in this area.

I also decided to remove the gun-like projections present either side of the nose - they seemed a bit unbalanced to me, and I think she scrubs up rather well without them - the detail elsewhere, and in particular the panelling visible on hull and carrier bays is very good.

Paint-scheme wise, the early Battlestar that I am calling the 'Olympia', began with a base coat of Coat d'Arms flat black, followed by a rough dry-brush of Vallejo neutral grey, then another dry-brush of the grey mixed with white, then a lighter dry brush with just white.

This has seen the addition of various white panel detailing, and I'm going to go on to add some areas in red, as well of course complete the detailing of the bridge windows and various other greeblies overall. So far, so good, anyway!

Moving on, I dug out the GZG candidates for the fighter craft, as you can see below, to whit the ORC faction FT1201 fighter as the Cylon, and the New Israeli FT1501 fighter as the Colonial Viper:

These are pretty much the best stand-ins you can find as 'not' BSG products, outside of the Studio Bergstrom ranges, and if you're UK based, certainly save on the postal charges from the 'States....

As with all Fleet-scale craft of course, the proportions of these are way off in actual size terms, as you can see when posed next to the Olympia below:

However, they will obviously be on stands or bases as representative squadrons, or even fighter wings, rather than individual craft, so will definitely do the job.

Much more to do with all of these, naturally, but thought I'd share the progress so far....

Small Scale Naval: Generic Dockyard

2010-12-09T18:17:00.022Z

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.

Spaced out with Fleet Scale Starships........!

2010-12-06T21:12:00.026Z

I once said that I needed a new project like I needed a hole in my head; in fact, I think I mentioned like two holes in the head.... so I guess the neurosurgeon must have been visiting SteelonSand Towers with his trepanning kit lately, because here I go again!

I'm of the generation of course, that cut its teeth on Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and all points in between, but for some reason I had mostly avoided putting a love of all of these together with wargaming, apart from the small scale Sci-Fi seen elsewhere on this Blog. So where are all the Galaxy-spanning Capital ships, full-thrusting their way across the emptiness of space, C-beams a glitter?

Well, you might well ask, as in typical fashion, it appears they have crept onto my sensor screens in the guise of the 'Ragtag Fugitive Fleet' from the original BSG.

I'd always had ideas about modelling this iconic collection of ships, but it is only recently that these have become more concrete, thanks to some guidance I picked up over at the excellent Star Ranger Forums:

http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/

Now there have been a number of great scale models, collectible ships and gaming miniatures available for a number of years that are representative of the craft in question, from the Titanium BSG ships to the amazing Ravenstar sculpts, but as always, I was looking for something that would be within budget for my 'subsidiary' project limitations, and have taken as my starting point Irregular Miniatures in the UK, as well as the brilliant and affordable creations of Studio Bergstrom in the 'States.

http://studiobergstrom.com/index.php?categoryID=51

Now there is a lot of well informed and technical debate out there as to the canonical proportions of Fleet-scale ships, but in my usual way, I wanted to go with something generic and 'looks right to my eyes' rather than anything more formal; hence the Irregular Minis DYC 8 Dreadnought Supercarrier and the Bergstrom 'Galactics' look-alike Carrier we see below:

Between them, I think we have a nice facsimile of a certain famous Battlestar, as well as what might be an earlier model of vessel - the 'Pre-' to the iconic Dreadnought perhaps?

Both ships appear in these photos in their as-delivered states, hence the obvious flash on the Irregular offering. Certainly, it would bear some conversion work, whilst the Bergstom example is just calling out for a good thrashing with the dry-brush to highlight all the various greeblies on its hull:

The Irregular vessel comes with separate carrier-bays, which again might allow for fielding differently-styled versions:

So having started off with some contenders for the leader of the Ragtag Fleet, I couldn't resist getting in the Bergstrom version of the baddie, to whit the 'Zylon' Carrier; this comes in two parts, as you can see, in order to form the upper and lower saucer sections:

and has a nifty tongue and groove arrangement for joining the two parts together:

All the surfaces have some lovely detailing, with visible carrier/ launch bays in all directions:

Seen up against its fellow from Bergstrom, I'm sure you can share my excitement over this 'yet-another, yes, that-really-is-too-many projects' Project:

These should be tremendous fun to paint and will always look great for display, even if they never get off the ground, gaming wise - although I am sure someone out there has already done their Stats for one of the widely available rulesets......

In the near future, I'll be looking into some likely contenders for the other ships in the fleet, a useful list of which can be found here:

http://www.tecr.com/galactica/miscships/miscships.htm

as well as thinking about some fighter stand-ins lurking amongst the GZG catalogue, so stay tuned, Space freaks!

2mm Colonial: More preparations for Ginnis

2010-11-27T12:04:00.019Z

Now some more preparatory thoughts concerning re-fighting the Battle of Ginnis, with simplified Orders of Battle culled from the Savage and Soldier article quoted in a previous post.

General Grenfell, on his approach to Kosha and its besieged fort divided the Anglo-Egyptian forces into two mixed Brigades, with a further Cavalry/Mounted Brigade in attendance.

The First Brigade, under General Butler, consists of the 1st Berkshire, the Royal West Kents and the 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry; these were backed up by a Camel Battery and 11th company Royal Engineers, the artillery having a small guard of sixty men from the 3rd Egyptian Regiment.

For Wargaming purposes, this boils down to the three Infantry Battalion stands we see below, as well as two guns (I'm imagining the camels of the battery to be somewhere else - these are rather tricky to model in 2mm - though I'm still working on it....)

Very sharp eyes will note that the stand on the right is still in Khaki - I felt that the 2DLI, in their 'light' role might have retained this - the others of course in the red tunic as ordered historically:

The Second Brigade under Colonel Huyshe consists of the Yorkshires, six companies of the Cameron Highlanders, a mixed unit from the IX Sudanese and the 1st Egyptians, three companies of the Egyptian Camel Corps, with a small detachment of their British counterpart, a Mule battery of 2/1 South Irish Division Royal Artillery, and two further Gardener Guns.

In the front, then, we have the two British battalions or their equivalents, followed by the Sudanese and Egyptians, then the Gardeners and the artillery:

The Mounted Brigade under Colonel Blake consists of the 20th Hussars, and a mixture of Egyptian Camel Corps and Cavalry, as well as a small group described as British Mounted Infantry of the Royal Highlanders; again, this will probably be simplified to the two stands below, 20th Hussars on the right, Camel Corps to the left:

As so often in the Colonial period, it is rather hard to pin down the exact nature of the Mahdist force - the Savage and Soldier article has some interesting information regarding the likely commanders and also posits the number of guns in their artillery, but it seems to boil down to between four and six thousand men 'under 40 flags' - I'll just be using them mob handed, you can be assured, unless I can track down some more detail.

Finally, we see Ginnis village itself, with the Mahdist camp beyond:

The tents are the BG158 group of Arab Tents from Irregular's 2mm Scenery range, and the village buildings are just made up of the usual flotsam and jetsam mounted on card bases - I've more of these for the village of Kosha itself, but am undecided as to whether or not to make a model of the fort there, that was held by the balance of the Cameron Highlanders and the IX Sudanese.

This is principally because I can find no images or descriptions of it, and moreover it played a limited role in the actual battle itself, merely being the jumping-off point, as it were.

So, things are firming up now on this little sideshow, with hopefully the battle itself to come in the near future.....

ACW Naval: Fort Humpter ready for duty!

2010-11-22T14:05:00.010Z

After some final painting, I am pleased to report that the scratch-built Fort Humpter is ready for service alongside the 1/2400th Ironclads from Tumbling Dice.

A rather busy weekend meant that in all honesty, I didn't have time to make a start on the Monopoly Hotels-as-buildings glimpsed in the previous posts, but luckily remembered I had some 1/1200th Rod Langton buildings from the 2mm Quebec project; alright the scale is a bit suspect, but actually they don't look too bad in these shots posed for the camera.

Currently you'll note a hand-dawn Stars 'n Bars fluttering over the casemate, but by the cunning expediency of putting some blue-tac in the flagstaff base, I can easily swap this for 'Ole Glory depending on the fort's occupants.

I deliberately kept the level of detailing low, both as a matter of convenience, but also in the spirit of my usual quick scratch-build - I was going for a piece that would look the part, rather than being a fine scale model.

Too close an inspection would have the U.S. Engineers shuddering at the shoddy building techniques, but as it will be acting as a shot and shell magnet in most games, I don't really mind!

Of course, she could see service in a number of guises and postures, from the ACW to Aero and Aquanef - definitely a nice large target..... quick and fun to build, and certainly cheap!

ACW Naval: Progress at Fort Humpter

2010-11-17T07:59:00.006Z

Construction work on 'Fort Humpter' continues apace, with the wall sections filled in and based with more of the cell-section card, as well as some internal buildings from a certain popular family boardgame - I knew those Hotels would come in handy one day!

The thickening of the walls has obviously led to an enlargement of the overall footprint, but luckily things still squeeze onto the original base, so it shouldn't look too huge up against the Ironclads once completed.

I've also been playing around with some large calibre guns as additions, in this case the high tech rendering of some cut up steel pins and pieces of card - at this size, and with my rough and ready style, these should do just fine once painted up:

I'll be using some coarse flocking gel to add some texture around the base of the walls next, to act as rocky outcrops around the construction, and need to sort out the haphazard walkway sections on top, but that is pretty much it bar the painting; some strips of card for the dock and approach causeway, and of course a flagpole and it'll be ready for action.

Whilst working on this, I stumbled upon a great website that has lots of contemporary Harper's Weekly newspaper pages, that have some brilliant drawings of the various original fortifications and battles; the narrative of Fort Sumter can be found here:

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/battle-fort-sumter.htm

The contemporary newspapers are here:

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/the-civil-war.htm

Well worth a look!

ACW Naval: Scratching about with Fort Sumter

2010-11-14T23:11:00.012Z

"Fort Sumter has been fired upon......my regiment leaves at Dawn......" or something like that! Yes, the recent flurry of 1/2400th activity has seen me leaving my regular projects to the side, and concentrate on the flavour of the moment, here in the shape of a rough idea for a scratch-built Civil War Fort.

Probably more Fort Humpter than Sumter, I thought I'd sketch out a generic design based on the famous original, that might serve in some ship-to-shore action with the Tumbling Dice Ironclads.

A quick bit of internet searching found the U.S. National Parks Service site for the original, which has some very useful contemporary and modern views of the fort and its close compatriots, alongside some plan drawings:

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/photosmultimedia/Fort-Sumter-Maps--Diagrams-Gallery.htm

A base width of 319 feet would see such a fort smaller in length than the large Kalamazoo Monitor seen in a previous post, so not much room for Columbiad guns, even if it is more to scale! As usual, therefore, I threw mathematics out the window, and went with what might look right.

I wanted to go the whole hog and have room for some scratch built artillery on the casemates, so I plumbed for a 120 x 120mm base card and freehanded a semblance of a fort as you see above.

Next up, some of that cell-centre packing card provided the start of walls, both internal and external:

and with the help of some blue-tac, we have, hey presto, the beginnings of something fairly suitable, I hope:

To give an idea of scale, I've thrown a TD Corvette and an ASV23 Stern Wheel Paddle Steamer into the photo, as it progresses, it should shape up to be quite a centrepiece for any Ironclad battle:

Alright, who am I kidding? It's not likely to go on when completed and win any model competition prizes, but will give a flavour of a contemporary fort for this new subsidiary project - obviously a long way to go yet, and I'm already distracting myself by sketching out some earthen batteries / artillery emplacements as we speak; but not bad so far for only twenty minutes or so of fiddling around - definitely more to come on this soon, so stay tuned!

A 1/2400th Fleet for Bolivia and some ACW Naval

2010-11-11T22:31:00.011Z

The recent kind generosity of David Crook (he of a Wargaming Oddyssey and Ogrefencer fame) in disposing of some of his Lead Mountain has seen a large influx of 1/2400th vessels into the shipyards at SteelonSand Towers.

This means that my own Lead Mountain has now grown exponentially (Grrr!), however in one fell swoop I now have enough ships to fill the gaps in both the Pacific War and Nemo vs The Militarist 'what-if' Fleets, as well has have a bit of fun with some ACW Ironclads. (Yay!)

I was lucky enough to get my hands on multiples of various types from Tumbling Dice across their Victorian and ACW Naval ranges, and this has seen me thinking along the lines of producing a Fleet for Bolivia that will sail alongside the historical ones of Chile and Peru.

When the Pacific War broke out, the dictatorial president of Bolivia, Hilarion Daza, apparently appealed for ships that would fight for his country, and was prepared to dispense Letters of Marque, in a legitimised Pirate style, to all-comers. Historically, of course, his offer does not seem to have been taken up, but I'm not going to let that hold me back!

I have a scenario in mind where ex-combatants from the American Civil War, including of course Confederate renegades, put together a rag-tag fleet of surplus war craft, and hot foot it South in search of glory and plunder.....

The ACW range from TD has its critics, and perhaps rightly so, given the slightly a-historical proportions of some of the sculpts, and it certainly suffers in comparison to its rival 1/2400th range from Panzerschiffe. There are some very good points made about this in an excellent Workbench Article over at TMP here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/555697/

Now given that I am not too concerned about the realism of these particular vessels, I will be quite happy to make good use of them, and have been putting the first coats to a number of different types, that might see double duty if I feel like putting on a strictly ACW game; below we see a collection of Monitors:

From the top, we have the USS Kalamazoo, the Dictator, the Monadnock and Agamenticus, and a slightly converted Monitor herself. The middle pair will be familiar to readers from my earlier conversions, and the larger two are similarly nice sculpts at this scale, but the iconic single turret craft does have a few problems that I did try to disguise. If anything, the TD model out of the packet has more in common with the historical Canonicus class, so I chopped the funnel and painted in some deck grilles as you see below:

The lower model is the 'as-it comes' version, which I will retain as a Bolivian Mercenary vessel, and the above may figure in an earlier sphere of combat. Another slightly problematic sculpt is the ASV53 Cairo Class vessels, that have more in common with a British Waterways Canal narrow boat than they do with the originals, but they will easily serve as a non-descript type in the pay of El Presidente Daza:

One sculpt that is closer to the original, is the generic Cotton Clad ASV59, which has a good stab at portraying, say, the CSS Stonewall Jackson, and the size of it also lends itself to a quick conversion or two - a karate chop on the rear end, and a funnel swap produces a relatively realistic looking USS Tin-clad, the Fort Hindman:

There's some nice illustrations of the various types as wargaming models of a slightly different calibre from the Thoroughbred Models' 1/600th catalogue:

http://www.thoroughbredmodels.com/Ironclads.htm

Similar small-scale conversion work has been done on an ASV56 CSS Texas, to produce another generic type, perhaps an Arkansas or Charleston:

Well, Okay, I just filed off the ship's boats/small protuberances from the stern, but you get the picture! :-)

Perhaps the height of the TD range in terms of general appearance are the pairing available in the ASV58 Pack, CSS Nashvile and Missouri - definitely the best of the bunch:

These are all still a work in progress, and I've yet to glue the sail sets to various masts for the sailing vessels, but hopefully soon I'll be able to deploy full flotillas, whether historical or imagined for all three protagonists in the Pacific War, (Yay!) and all I have to do now is resist the temptation to suffer project-creep into the ACW itself (Grrr!).....

1/3600th Ancient Galleys: Painted examples

2010-10-30T11:28:00.013+01:00

Throwing aside all my regular projects, I took the plunge and had a go at painting up a fair sample of the Ancient Galleys seen in my last post. Now my knowledge in this area is rather lacking, so don't look for any authentic colour schemes amongst these - I took rather a 'that-might-look-good' approach, so these are probably more Hollywood than Hellenistic.

Having said that, I think they turned out rather well, with some strong colour contenders emerging for future fleets, and also some lessons learned.

Having needed to do no more than minimal preparation, (The bottoms of the bases are cast nice and flat, and there is no flash to speak of), I used a black undercoat, and then began by lining in the main hull colours.

This was followed up by the sails and oar banks, and then detailing strokes to bring them more to life - the masts, sail designs, some coloured blobs as various decorations on sternpost etc, and finally the addition of the all important 'eyes' at the bow.

I also was ambitious enough to put a blob of bronze at the very tip of the bow to suggest a metal ram - although to be fair, this is so minute, that it can't really be seen - particularly in the photos! The whole was completed with the base being painted, and some white lines added as an indication of movement.

They are indeed, really tiny, and I was thankful for my experience at painting up other small scale minis such as 2mm soldiery and 1/3000th ships.

Running through, then, some Hexeremes:

Being the largest, of course, these provided the best scope for attempting sail designs, although having started with fine ambitions of sketching in Gorgon heads and geometric designs, I was reduced to a few squiggles - I found it's pretty hard to get your brush tip in close and control it with something this small.

Talking of which, the Triremes meant that plainer schemes were prevalent, although the front of the sails did provide enough space for a few decorative strokes here and there. I found that in spite of the clear casting of individual oars, the oar banks were best done by strokes of a 000 brush, rather than taking a dry-brush action, as this tended to just clog them all together - the only niggle is that seen from above, white oars look rather like fish bones!

The Quinquiremes are a nice median if you like, with just enough scope for hull decoration, as well as tolerating some expressionistic sail decorations - hopefully on the table top, this will look more effective than in a camera close-up:

I think the most striking thing, given my assumption that the sails would provide a good surface to identify individual vessels or protagonists, is the fact that after all, it is the hull itself that is the most obvious at a distance, and is therefore the better identifier; a 'red' flotilla illustrates:

followed by a blue:

a green;

and finally a natural wood-coloured one:

Overall, I've been quite pleased with them, as they paint up very quickly for a very small effort, and certainly look good en masse:

How practical they are for gaming is yet to be seen; mounting multiples of them on large bases might be the easiest way of handling them, but sort of defeats the object of most Galley combat rules, which probably quite rightly tend to accentuate individual ship duels.

Used individually, each vessel on its own is rather fiddly to handle, being so tiny, and storage would be a problem - it occurs to me that a strip of magnetic sheet under each would make this easier, although applying it would be a rather time-consuming exercise.

If you gaming intensions though, demand enormous fleets of varied craft, then these might just be the ticket -Actium here we come!

1/3600th Ancient Galleys from Outpost Wargames

2010-10-25T18:46:00.044+01:00

So, just when I thought it was safe to relax and look forward to progressing with my regular projects, my butterfly mind once more caught me out and sent me winging my way in the direction of something new.

To a chorus of groans of "He's only gone and done it again....", I'll therefore present yet another review of a new, yes, that's a new project - to whit the small but perfectly formed Ancient Galleys from Outpost Wargame Services!

These Roman and Hellenistic vessels are scaled in at 1/3600th, so I have managed to move into something smaller......perhaps a hint of downsizing for the coming recession? As if....

http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/

(Scroll down on their Ranges web page, and look for Naval/Ancient Ships)

I'd been wanting for some time to have a go at some Ancient Naval, but had been thoroughly intimidated by the thought of taking on the larger scale products available in say 1/1200th or by the likes of Xyston, and was very happy to come across these ships that would fit very nicely into my ethos of putting down Mass onto the tabletop, without breaking the bank, nor requiring painting skills above and beyond my capabilities.

The beauty of these vessels is that they are simple enough to paint up quickly, yet are gifted with enough detail to provide interest, and moreover, come in packs of twenty five!

Yes, that's twenty five vessels for UK £3.00 - £4.00, depending on vessel type.

Now before I get too misty eyed about the qualities of the smallest of smaller scales out there, I have to admit that as this was one of my (Ahem), subsidiary projects, I only invested in a limited number of types, and moreover, actually avoided the smallest ones that are available....yes even I baulked at some of the really tiny models that they provide, namely classes of ship such as the Lembi and Penteconter.....you'll see what I mean if you take a look at the illustrative and useful gallery at their website:

http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/images/Web%20Photos/Ships/small1_5.jpg

and:

http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/images/Web%20Photos/Ships/small6_11.jpg

I went only for the MED4 Trireme and above, hoping to balance the playability versus the paintability of such small vessels.

To put things into perspective, these Galleys featuring integral bases range roughly in size from around 7mm up to 20mm in length.

I purchased the MED5, Trireme with sail, the MED6 and 7, Quinquireme both with and without sail, and the MED11, Hexereme with sail.

The castings arrived in a nice and clean state, with only some small slivers of venting flash present on some of the base corners, that easily snipped off.

Outpost were kind enough to inform me that there may be a slight delay in despatch due to unforseen circumstances, but in any event, I received the minis within a week of ordering by e-mail and paying by PayPal.

For their size, the Galleys are very nicely proportioned, with banks of oars visible, as well as distinctive bow and sternpost decorations and sails and masts. One criticism might be that in the Trireme in particular, the sails are heeling forward somewhat due to the sculpting style, but this is only really a small niggle - although I have to warn that the hardness of the pewter material makes it impossible to straighten these into a more vertical position in any way.

I like the fact, without going into the whole 'Galleys in combat shouldn't have masts or sails in place' debate, that you have the option to field either type, although I have to say that for me, I wanted a majority of those with sails - it somehow just looks right, particularly in this scale.

Looking at what I bought individually, then, let's start with the MED5 Trireme w/sail:

The Galley itself measures at 12mm stern to bow, with the integral base being 14mm by 6mm wide - the overall height from base bottom to the top of the mast is 5mm, give or take.

I know that these measurements have led others who know better, particularly Tony Hughes of Gildas and Tiny Tin Troops fame, to state that they are probably closer to 1/3000th in scale; he has a useful photograph at his old website:

http://www.gildasfacit.btinternet.co.uk/Naval/naval_wargaming.htm

The Quniquireme measures out at 17mm by 8mm base wise, and has a more erect sail, with a nicely pronounced Hellenic ram-style bow, perfect for painting eyes on!

The Hexereme, compared to the others, is suitably broad and chunky at 20mm by 12mm based, and comes with some great looking archery or 'siege' towers fore and aft:

It is difficult even with a decent Macro setting to truly capture these diminutive ships, but I think you can get an idea of the level of detail that you have to play with below:

Even I won't be attempting to mount any deck crews of Hoplites or Marines, but I think they should paint up nicely, and give a good sense of the originals in full flow:

Having said that, the mast-less vessels do offer the opportunity to glue in some scratch built catapults......only kidding!

As always on this Blog, the squares on the green cutting mat are sized at 10mm or 1cm each, but for clarity, here's a view of one of them up against a UK Penny:

Then a group beside a more international standard AAA battery:

Overall I'm pretty pleased with what I ordered, and looking forward to putting some paint their way; I'm not sure just yet as to how exactly they are to be used in a game (to base or not to base), but I'll likely be looking at one of the variants of Corvus as a set of easy play rules.

As a subsidiary project, these are going to be more about having a go at something different, rather than being a big commitment to a unified game system or period.

I'm not going to be too stuck on a particular period or group of protagonists, rather use the ability of the smaller minis to stand in as a number of different types in various eras.

Certainly, Ancient Naval Warfare purists might shudder at the broad brush sculpting and characterisation of these miniatures, but I think for a small investment, they should more than do the job, and at the very least would provide a good weekend project for any miniaturist or gamer.

I think that I can say that if you want to have a go at becoming "The Face that launched a thousand ships", then these are definitely the way to go!

2mm Colonial: The Battle of Ginnis 1885

2010-10-22T16:31:00.027+01:00

I've been looking around for a while now for a suitable battle to make use of the fledgling Colonial forces in 2mm that have so far left the workbench. It doesn't seem fair to have them just sitting waiting for some VSF themed vehicles or some such to appear, so in the meantime I am thinking about using them in a small-scale battle set in the Egyptian Sudan.

Given that I haven't quite achieved the hordes of units originally envisaged, the Omdurmans, El-Tebs and Tel-El Kebirs of this world are a little out of range as yet, so I've settled on the more diminutive Ginnis, circa 1885.

This took place in the aftermath of the fall of Khartoum and the loss of Gordon, when the River and Desert Relief Columns had withdrawn over the border, leaving some small garrisoned outposts in the Northern Sudan.

These forts had increasingly come under harassing attacks by local Emirs loyal to the Mahdi, in particular the one located between Kosh and Wadi Halfa on the Nile at Ginnis, held by a detachment of the Cameron Highlanders and the Ninth Sudanese Battalion. General Sir Evelyn Wood therefore despatched a force of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade to push back the Dervishes.

This battle is interesting in that the force under Grenfell was a combination of Egyptian, Sudanese and British forces, including mule batteries and Camel Corps, and was one of the last outings for the scarlet tunic for British troops - certainly, anyway, the OOB seems to roughly match with what I have happened to have painted up, so it fits the bill!

The always excellent Savage and Soldier website has a brilliant article by Doug Johnson that sets out the background and narrative to the action, as well as providing details on the units involved and the aftermath of the engagement:

http://www.savageandsoldier.com/sudan/Ginnis.html

Johnson makes the important point that it was ironically the fear on both sides that the armed presence in the Northern Sudan border areas was a prelude to invasion that lead to the engagement and in spite of the success of the Anglo-Egyptian force, the Mahdists were eventually left in possession of a longer stretch of the Nile than they had previously occupied once the isolated garrisons were withdrawn to Wadi Halfa.

In any event, I think the battle is interesting in that it should allow the use of separate brigades of an all-arms force to engage the Mahdists, who in contrast to perhaps the conventional Wargamer's idea of a headlong charge, carefully deployed around the besieged fort.

Indeed, they had pre-placed captured Artillery pieces in batteries along the Nile, had taken command of the dominant feature with riflemen, and once the battle had begun, were able to mount a credible flanking manoeuvre into the Anglo-Egyptian flank.

I've got to do some more work and put together some scratch-built scenery, principally village buildings, before this battle can become a table top reality, and of course could also do with lots more Mahdist infantry, but it should be fun, particularly as it also gives me an excuse to deploy the Nile River Steamer, here in the guise of the HMS Lotus - Huzzah!

Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks.......

Pre-Dreadnought Photos: Part 12

2010-10-19T15:57:00.022+01:00

An American flavour, now, to the latest instalment of Pre-dred pics, in this case colourised Postcard views of various U.S. Navy vessels from around the turn of the century.

The colourisation means that you shouldn't take the colour schemes as Gospel, but nevertheless, I think some clear and interesting images.

(Remember, they are all clickable for a zoomed, Macro view.)

Above we have a stern view of the Armoured Cruiser Brooklyn, tied up at New York, and showing lines that are very reminiscent of the Varyag, built in the U.S. for the RJW-era Russian Navy.

A veteran of both Santiago Bay and the Boxer Rebellion deployment, she was re-commissioned during the First World War in order to add to the American naval presence in the North Atlantic.

Next up, we have a view of the Armoured Cruiser USS Pennsylvania, launched in 1903 from the Cramp's yard, she was renamed the Pittsburgh in 1912, and soldiered on until 1931:

Moving on, we have the Armoured Cruiser the Colorado, of the same class, which was also renamed during her career, this time as the Pueblo; there's a good summary of her life at the battleships-cruisers website:

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/uss_colorado.htm

Another view of the Brooklyn here, this time from the bows, with another Cruiser in the background; these cards are from The Illustrated Postal Card Company of New York, circa 1910:

Moving up a class, we have the Battleship USS Kearsage next, which having been launched in 1898, apparently survived all the way until 1955, albeit in the guise of a Floating Crane ship!

Nice view of the turret-upon-turret design here - can't imaging what it was like for the gun crew in the primary when those secondaries gave fire just above....

Moving on, we have a view of the Armoured Cruiser USS Washington, launched 1905, part of the Tennessee class of improved vessels:

Now a representation of the Battleship Vermont of 1905; there's a nice web page concerning her weapons complement that can be seen here:

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_7-45_mk2.htm

Next up, we have another veteran of the Span-Am War, and at least at the time of writing, the last surviving of her type - the Cruiser USS Olympia - hopefully she can be retained as a floating Museum, rather than be scuttled after all these years......what a waste!

The authoritative record of why she deserves her reputation can be found here at the Span-Am War website:

http://www.spanamwar.com/olympia.htm

Next we have the Bainbridge Class Destroyer, the USS Decatur; there's a good Wiki page with all her info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Decatur_(DD-5)

Surprisingly, for a small vessel that had cruised extensively in the Far East and Philippines, she was transferred to the rough waters of the Atlantic for convoy duty at the tail end of 1918:

Finally, we have a nice colourised depiction of that strangest of weapon-platform craft, namely the Dynamite gun armed USS Vesuvius (aptly named....):

There is an explanatory entry at the excellent Span-Am War site as below:

http://www.spanamwar.com/vesuvius.htm

The 15" weapons fired an explosive charge through an 'explosion' of compressed air; propelling the mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine out to a range of one and a half miles!

At least that was the theory......

Certainly a unique vessel - it's a shame, but I don't think any 1/3000th manufacturer makes a model of one. :-)

2mm Web Resources: New entries!

2010-10-13T20:01:00.009+01:00

Hello All, just a quick 'heads up' with regard to some new teeny-tiny wargaming minis appearing on the old WWW. A couple of posts have been brought to my attention, firstly at the always interesting Panzer Eight Blog, which debuted earlier this year, followed by Tim Gow's Blogsite, Megablitz and More.

Mr Gow has posted some great photos of an ACW game setup, using some interesting ideas involving generically painted 2mm forces that might be employed for a number of different protagonists and conflicts:

http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2010/03/terrible-swiftly-painted-toys.html

Panzer8, meanwhile, has been working hard on some WWI units, producing some excellent-looking British troops, mounted on particularly effective scenic bases. I particularly like his use of kitchen steel wool teased out and cut to form barbed wire:

http://panzer8.weebly.com/1/post/2010/10/ww1-in-2mm-british-army.html

Make sure to drop by and take a look; hope to see more from them both in the near future!

New "Test" Project: WTJ Eylau Sequence MGVs

2010-10-05T17:30:00.023+01:00

A look now at yet another "Test" project, this time Sci-Fi related, in the shape of the excellent 'Eylau Sequence' minis produced by War Times Journal. Yes, you guessed it, the recent rush of shiny new metal across the pages of the Blog has ignited the need for more of the same - and I found myself justifying just a small purchase of a selection of these intriguing models.....only to test the water as it were...... :-)

For some time now, Jim over at WTJ has been working on a whole new type of line, a far cry from his normal 1/3000th naval, and has come up with a product that is of similar quality, which is further supported by a whole slew of relevant gaming and background information, from creative fiction to stats and rules - you might say he has written a whole new Sci-Fi Universe into the canon, or should that be Microverse?

I won't attempt to explain the well-thought out and inspiring ideas behind the range here, the WTJ site itself has links to all the relevant information, but suffice to say that what we have is a future war where the main protagonists employ tiny or even microscopic vehicles to engage each other, autonomous, armed and deadly!

http://www.eylau.com/about/

http://www.wtj.com/store/

Being such a small scale fanatic, I knew I couldn't resist the siren call of these 'tiny' minis for long, so took the plunge with the sculpts that I will be showcasing here.

Now WTJ, in the same way as their 1/3000th Pre-Dreadnoughts, have detailed photographs of the miniatures on their site, so I won't attempt to replicate those here, but merely relate those I acquired to one another to give an idea of how my own project might shape up.

Two of the factions in the Eylau Sequence story have vehicles that are named for, and loosely designed around real-world flora and fauna, with the Californians employing reptiles, and the Selangor carnivorous fish. The Mediterranean states are the exception with a less organic look, deploying craft of hard, technical weapon-related nomenclature.

I got a selection of heavy and light from the various factions, with a view to producing a sort of battleship and escorts type of unit from each.

From the Californians, then, we have the larger L35 Chameleon (WTJ-9011501) and the smaller L63 Whiptail (WTJ-9011502):

The sculpts on these are clean and sleek, with the very high quality detailing familiar to purchasers of the company's ships. There are some mould lines visible, but to be honest at this scale, these become more part of the design than extraneous to it, and where present are very clean and sharp. Seen here in their 'out-of-packet' state, there is a small amount of venting/flashing remnants, but nothing worth speaking of.

The intriguing concepts brought forward from WTJ, not only the miniature technology but the 'organic' design background are fresher than the standard 'future aerospace-spacecraft with wings' or 'alien equals bulbous bugs' approach, and I think it is great to see some new thinking in terms of styling making it from concept to the gaming table - I have seen in various discussion forums that these minis could equally be used as Grav-tanks or even Fleet-scale spacecraft, as well as for their intended purpose.

In keeping, perhaps, with this novel approach, WTJ has decided to include a unique mounting system with these miniatures; to whit a notched metal part to the base of the mini that corresponds with it's own small metal stand and base - these are included within the purchase price of the mini itself.

I was initially sceptical about this, having moved alongside most gamers into the area of using magnets and plastic stands for vehicles such as this, and I also feared, given the small weight of the minis themselves, for what the balance and fit would be like.

I need not have worried; in line with the product quality on show elsewhere in their ranges, WTJ's MGVs should fit neatly and easily onto the stands - indeed, in the following picture, the Chameleon and its partner are balanced 'au-naturel' on the corresponding base pedestal - at this stage no glue involved!

Of course, gluing would be necessary, and the company has thoughtfully provided advice on their website as to how this is done, although many people might have their own ideas as to how to do this, or might even feel the notch and groove pedestal would not fit into their standard basing - but I don't think this makes the minis any less attractive!

Moving on, we see the EU11 Mace (WTJ-9011406) alongside the EU7 Lance (WTJ-9011404):

These Mediterranean/Australian craft have a much more technical look, and would therefore, perhaps, more easily fit in as alternatives alongside existing small-scale Sci-Fi ranges.

It wouldn't be hard to imagine either as Fleet-scale starships, for instance.

I think the L35 Chameleon is particularly effective, and has great proportions, and let's face it, just looks d*mned cool, even in an unpainted state:

It's heavyweight foe might be the K312 Rock Shark (WTJ-9011306), which has a really menacing aspect, again with a technical edge.

These micro- or even nano-bots look like they could kick up some serious fuss, even if it is on such a small scale - the game statistics themselves feature the option to have them battling it out out with insects, fungii or even malevolent mold, and the terrain might be littered with impeding ice crystals, dust or hair!

At the moment, my take on these minis will probably follow the conventions laid out by WTJ themselves, including the basing - I've even got a bag of mini toy plastic insects somewhere that would add some colour to their combats - but it does occur to me that the more organic-looking sculpts might even do double duty as some scary alien Aero-Fauna in VSF/Aeronef gaming.

Hopefully, a lick of paint should firm these ideas up a bit, and I'll return to these little beasties in forthcoming posts - in the meantime, remember the old adage that it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog - small can be deadly!

Exclusive Preview: 6mm Super Heavies from Plasmablast

2010-09-25T10:36:00.032+01:00

I'm lucky enough to be able to bring you another super 6mm exclusive preview now, this time of the as yet unseen Super Heavy tanks to accompany the developing Sci-Fi range over at Plasmablast Games.

The ever-gracious Marios Damoulianos over in Greece was kind enough to send me some pre-release samples of the new Super Heavy Tanks that will complement the available Progenitor and Orbital Combine vehicles, so I thought I'd share them with you all prior to their planned debut in approximately a months time.

As you can see above, in the company of their respective Heavy and Medium counterparts, these new vehicles are definitely impressive; truly 'super', and climbing towards the Ogre range of things, I think!

That is not to say, however, that they are crude or ugly in any way however, indeed, as you will be able to see in the photos in this post, the detail, interest and quality of these minis is second to none.

We can see below the two side by side, and the dimensions are immediately apparent, easily filling a 50x50mm square:

First up, let's take a look at each from the ground up, as it were, here the Orbital Combine version, perhaps a hover or GEV unit:

Each vehicle comes with separate weapons and utility turrets, in the case of this one, a main and subsidiary turret, along with two nifty missile launchers:

Its counterpart, a more conventional tracked type:

Its weapons fit, again a main and subsidiary, with in addition two rather cool gatling and missile combo types:

Let's see the Progenitor Super Heavy complete with the weapons in situ; a front view to give you an idea of the definition that you might expect from the production models when available - obviously these are advance copies, so according to Marios, might still be a little rough around the edges. (although I can't see where!)

I think the turrets and weapon-fits as such, whilst following on faithfully from some of the innovative designs already apparent from Plasmablast, might not be to everyones' taste, but being cast separately, could of course be mixed and matched as required:

In any event, whatever your preference, the proportions and balance of the individual turrets are spot-on, and they slide easily and sit comfortably into the pre-drilled mounting holes. As usual with Marios' work, there is no flash or venting remnants to dispose of, and whilst mould lines are apparent, I don't think they are particularly obtrusive.

Attention to detail is the key here, with every surface having had some thought applied to it; I believe Plasmablast have gone down the route of using 3D computer software for their initial designs, and this pays dividends in the overall appearance:

The Orbital Combine version has similar qualities, even down to the individual missile launch tube covers in the two smallest turrets. (Remember, all photos are 'clickable' for a close-up view.)

The only issue that did cause me some concern was the fact that when the main and subsidiary turrets are mounted together, the overhang from the main weapon systems on both vehicles means that when they are pointing forward, they rest directly on top of the fore-turret.

This serves to sadly obscure the smaller turret entirely, both losing a view of the excellent sculpting, and to some extent making the vehicle as a whole look slightly less realistic. (If you can use such a word in the case of such wonderful monsters!)

Of course this issue could be solved by some clever posing of the individual turrets when making them up; or even perhaps putting a small shim below the main turret to lift it up a little - but this would necessarily spoil the nice conformal fit that Marios has produced.

That one issue aside, these are great pieces of kit, and if you are disposed towards some serious firepower having a place on your table-top, then these will definitely fit the bill.

Finally, let's take a look at each model up against its smaller team members once more:

I've go to give Plasmablast top marks for continuity of vision in the depiction of these two factions, and think that it is great to see them making an effort to develop and widen their ranges - we all have our favourites from the established companies out there, but these additions can only serve to re-inforce that one weakness of almost all Wargamers -the need to add to the Lead Mountain!

I for one will be very happy to see these available in a month or so's time, and look forward to keeping an eye open for more from the company in future - If you are of similar mind, feel free to bombard Marios with demands for more of the same!

http://www.plasmablastgames.com/index.html

Save the USS Olympia!

2010-09-24T18:12:00.009+01:00

A post over at TMP, by porfirio rubirosa, has alerted me to the fact that the USS Olympia, surviving veteran of the SpanAm War, is in serious need of some TLC, and the Navy apparently does not have the funds to see this through (a scandal, I tell, you Gridley....you may fire when ready!).

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=209162

Please, any Pre-dreadnoughters out there, take some time to consider a donation - there aren't too many of her kind left, and it would be a tragedy to see her sunk after all these years!

http://cruiserolympia.org/site/donate/

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/09/12/uss-olympia-needs-help-or-else/

(Photo above from my collection).