Aeronef: Start of an Ottoman Flotilla....

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

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...

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.....

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...

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!