The Airships of Luther Arkwright part two

In part two I have featured the Airships of Cromwell, the Puritanical or Round Head fleet.

144 Desolate - painted in the puritanical colours of grey and black with the white cross of Cromwell.

265 Despair - easily distinguished from the rest of the fleet by the four funnel configuration, again painted grey and black

541 Deliverance - sister ship to 144 Desolate

And 728 Dreadful, the newest battleship of the fleet. The Luther Arkwight theme of plain white crosses on black backgrounds has been continued throughout. The models are made from either thick felt tip pens (called blow pens) or the drop tank from a 1/32nd scale airplane.

The markings are from GW, over painted to keep the white from apearing to stark.

There is one other ship in this fleet based on RAS James, but obviously painted black. I was trying to achieve the dark and moody feel of the comic book and the colour and sheer size of these battleships go some of the way to achieving this.

Tony

The Airships of Luther Arkwright part one

Some time ago I produced these Aeronefs built and painted to represent the airships of Luther Arkwright, see; http://www.bryan-talbot.com/arkwright/index.html

The first is the Royalist AirShip (RAS) AR101, the largest of the Royalist fleet.

Secondly we have RAS Albert - the fleet flagship.

Then RAS Victoria - the sister ship to Albert.

RAS James - the fastest ship in the fleet.

RAS Mary - the oldest ship in the entire army.

And RAS Scimitar, Sword and Sabre - attack craft. The models are built to the nominal scale of 1/600th or 1/700th and are in the main built from plastic pen barrels and thick plastic card with knitting needles for turrets. I will write more on the background later. In part two I will show the Puritanical or 'round head' fleet.

Tony

Yours in white wine sauce Blog competition

Around the World in 80 models - part two

German steam powered land-ironclad squad – Chapter Two
The construction and testing of the Holt caterpillar mechanism has gone well and although there is some disagreement as to whether the steam engine has enough horse power, the general agreement is that the project is progressing well. Further up the chain of command the situation is not so good. The American Government has lodged a complaint against ‘under-hand business practices’ and the American Patent office have started proceeding against the German Special Projects division for breach of Patent AS 12867/1887 ‘Chain Track’ Held by The Holts Tractor Company of Ohio.

One point of interest to the reader is that the Holt patent track laying system is the basis of both the German A7V, and the French Renault tanks.

This is not the only issues affecting the project as the German Navy is still refusing to release any armour platting and now Krupps have written to Herr Dr. Lacher to suggest that they are being put under pressure to refuse to supply the naval designed guns! The political intrigue surrounding this project is growing by the day and it will take all of Dr. Lacker’s skills to negotiate a suitable outcome.

We have a compromise – The German Navy have agreed to allow the steel plate and naval guns to be used, provided that the project is now a joint venture and the Land Ironclads are now referred to as Land Ships! Herr Lacher is said to be ‘delighted at the combined expertise of the Imperial German Army and Navy working together. It is hoped that this amalgamation will speed up both development and construction times.’

The Fenian Airship (Toucan) – Chapter Two
The airships envelope has been successfully test filled and although the event went without a hitch, there is concern that the existing envelope may need to be increased in size, or at the very least altered to include one extra gas bag – a similar experience has been encountered in a number of dirigible builds, and the usual way around this is to extend the envelope in the centre section. O’Driscall is against such actions and it might be that the gondola will have to be reduced in size and/or the maximum load reduced.

The high pressure steam engine has also been delivered and is undergoing trials, to confirm its maximum pressure out-put and to investigate ways that the whole assembly can have its weight reduced. On this point a new member and specialist engineer has been brought in to the project to oversee the mechanical specifications and build, Robert Lock, a Welshman, who has worked in Italy and been involved in many similar project’s will also help with the building of the gondola. ‘Bob’ Lock has also expressed an interest in piloting the airship, a position that has already had a number of candidates and should prove a ‘delightful aside’ to the more serious project of construction!

The ‘Fenian Ram’ and ‘Irish Folly’ are both engaged in testing the new Shillelagh stick bombs. The bomb is shaped like the British Congreve Rocket, but intended to be dropped rather than rocket propelled. Many civilised nations have reportedly tested such devices, few will admit to owning any!

Tony

The Airship Hyperion

This weekend I finished the painting and basing of the Hyperion model - not a lot to add to the earlier post, this was a great fun project that produces the most colourful model-to-date in my 1/300th scale collection of Aeronef's

In addition I have added this 'in focus' photo of the 'floating VSF mine', this time I managed to get the mine in focus but the base a bit fuzzy! Details of construction are posted earlier, but simply put an 8mm faceted bead is mounted on a metal rod and 40mm GW base.

Tony

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

This morning I visted The West Midlands Military Show or WMMS at Aldersley Leisure Village Wolverhampton. I arrived just before 10.00 - opening time, and was lucky enough to secure a parking place in the main carpark, something I had not been able to do on two previous visits.

The show was very well attended and I enjoyed about two hours walking around the hall and window-shopping with the traders as well as checking out all the exhibition and participation games.

I purchased the latest copy of No Quarter - the Privateer Press magazine (I enjoy the modelling and painting articles, but do not 'collect any factions"), a couple of old Tamiya modelling magazines, one D&D Miniature (from the CMG - a six armed ape creature), one figure from Flashing Blades (a 40mm Greek Hopolite, which I will modify for my 40mm Flash Gordon collection) and a box of 40mm figures from Graven Images that was reduced. Not a huge spend - only 20 - 25 UK pounds in total and not even a long visit, but OK for me as I had to be back for lunch.

Tony

Flintloque figures and themed terrain

This evening I have posted some more examples of my Flintloque figure collection and the scratch built terrain I have built to support them.

The first photo shows a scratch built house that I built some time ago. I had tried to see just how much detail I could build in to a model and based the house on another model made by the Spanish company Andreas in 1/32nd scale. The model is constructed on a foam board base and uses a wide range of materials, balsa, Das modelling clay, plastic sprue, carved stones and individual tiles made from small plastic tubes.

The figures show 'Old Nosey' consulting with his most trusted adviseres prior to a battle.

This photos shows a Spanish themed house, again constructed over foam board and covered with Das modelling clay. The window and door detail is made from matchsticks.

The figures show a young officer arguing with a cook that is a modified Obidiah and based on the cook from the TV series Gormengast. I had intended to model a whole host of characters from the series, but to date have only completed three.

The building (only partly shown) is a well housing based on a Hovels resin building, but in this case made from blue foam. The detail being first drawn, then carved and finally textured before being sealed with PVA glue and painted.

The figures are some of my favourite Flintloque figures - the Highland Rats, which were a real joy to paint.

This photo shows the reverse of the Spanish house seen above, window detail from balsa and match sticks. The wagon in the forground is a scratch built wagon with spare wheels and the cover from a pencil sharpener model of a wagon. It has a full load of equipments and is pulled by a horse picked up in a cake decorating shop.

The final building in this set is a barn - based on many GW barn models seen in White Dwarf and at GW stores. It is constructed from balsa over a foam board core with clay tiles from a church model.

The figures show Lawrance leading a group of 60th rifles.

Each of the photos above and those of the Steam Tanks or Dampfpanzerwagons are photographed on my green flocked wargaming board, that is made from three sheets of white foam (ex-packing case material), with a wooden beading surround and covered in paper (manilla envelopes) and PVA glue before being painted and flocked with railway scatter material. The board is over five years old and allthough I have had to repair it and add more scatter is still going strong and counters claims that white packing foam cannot be used for a wargame table!

Hopefully these photos show both my painting style (cartoon like, I know) and my modelling techniques.

Tony

Fantastic source for models

I recently came across this site which imports in to the US Japanese toys and models.

http://www.bcop.biz/

For me it offeres loads of inspiration for my Flash Gordon and Aeronef modelling projects.

Tony