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:
Some Old-school imagineering on this richly resourced page:
Some super scratch-building ideas:
Irregular Miniature's alternatives to Aeronef:
and finally some lovely eye candy:
See you all soon!
