Steam Tank Update

Good evening,

Well, I've made absolutely no more progress on crewing the Air Boat (apart from learning why it can fly - it's core is made from 'lift wood'!), what with school holidays, painting window frames (which is taking for ever!) and getting ready for the new school year, but I have managed to at least create some grates on (actually, sitting just above) the deck of the steam tank...





... ostensibly to release the heat from the cabin, but really, to see the crew inside!

The grating is just some old fly screen cut to size.

One problem with retro fitting a see through portion into an already constructed model is that, well...I now realize that, yes, there is crew in there, but not much else. I should have put some ammunition stores and such in there. The crew looks like they're dancing around an empty room!

Ah well, you live and learn...

And no, the tracks aren't finished. I've got a couple of plates to fit over their sides to hide a distinct lack of running gear! Then I can glue them to the bottom of the hull.

This thing's really quite tall!

As for the funnel, I simply added it to the back of the bridge. The box thing I was planning to put on the back of the hull from which two funnels were going to protrude was just too fiddly, and I couldn't get the funnels to sit both perpendicular to the x axis and parallel to each other. So, I settled on this. Not quite as cool, but far less frustrating.

Nick

Oh, and thank you to the three people who responded to my little survey about how to class this thing in HOTT. One vote each for 'Standard Behemoth', 'Foot Behemoth' and 'Shooting Blade'. Hmmm. Might just keep it simple, and class it as a normal Behemoth. Lets face it, it would fall over in rough ground, and something this big would be easy to bring fire down upon. Apparently, there were instances in WW1 where tanks were actually knocked out by rifle fire, either through penetrating their armor (!), or freaking out their crew. Or so says Robin! :-)

VSF British Air Boat

Good evening,

A while back Andy Gorman gave me his excellent VSF 20mm army, including this splendid scratch built Air Boat. Balsa, card and cleverness. Brilliant, in fact!




Well, seeing as HaT have brought out a naval Gardener Gun, complete with deck mount, I thought 'Cool. I'll add a couple of them to the Air Boat'.

I picked up a box from Stan last night (any Kiwi gamers who are after 20mm plastics at a great price, contact him!) and have started to pull some things together...



First up, I had to crew the gun, so I grabbed a left over sprue of the HaT Colonial Artillery and swapped their heads for the spare naval heads that come with the Gardener Gun (the result of which looks a little odd close up, but I'm hoping they'll look a little more natural with a coat of paint), along with the Heliograph Operator from the Gattling Gun sprue. I'm going to put him in a crow's nest on the forward mast. Cool idea, thanks Stan!

The Gardener Gunners also had their heads swapped. It is interesting to note that the mount is not quite tall enough for the gun's crank handle to meet the gunners hand, so I've mounted the mounts on some spare crew bases. The guns themselves will be mounted atop the bridge, to which I will add a solid railing.


I'm also thinking of mounting one of the officers with a telescope atop the bridge as well. I'll have to see how crowded it becomes first.

Isn't it funny how easily wargamers are distracted from one item to the next, before the former is completed! :-)

Nick

Steam Tank Update

Good evening,

Well, it's slow going. I redesigned the chassis, have cut up (and scored) some tracks, pulled it together and am in the process of painting same.




Not least because of...(see above post)

Nick

What Should the Steam Tank Be?

Good evening,

Well, while I'm waiting to get off my butt to actually do something constructive, construting wise, it has occured to me that I'm not quite sure what to class this Steam Tank as in HOTT terms.

The most obvious would be to call it a Behemoth, but, well, classing it as mounted would make it vulnerable to shooting which it just should not be ('cept to artillery). So, as I see it, there are four options...

1. Class it as a standard Behemoth, @ 4AP.
   


2. Class it as a Foot Behemoth - that is, as a standard Bh, but class it as foot, not mounted, @ 4 AP.
   


3. Class it as a Blade @ 2AP. Boring, but it would make it mostly invulnerable to shooting and suitably scary to foot. I think it would also suitably simulate it's lack of maneuverability and the difficulty it'd have with fast moving opponents.
   


4. Class it as a shooter, with Blade close combat factors, @ 4AP.

So, what do you think? Please vote on the side bar now!

(I also have the same problem with my EIR Tortoise...



...'cept that it can't really shoot back. What should this be?)

Nick

Now you see them...

...and now you don't!





Well, I've finally got the lid on the hull of the steam tank. I thought I might be able to see a bit more of the crew, but, well, at least now I've got evidence that there are indeed miniatures in there, and they are painted!

Next step is to add some...cladding(?)...to the remaining edges of the deck, try to touch up the gaps with PVA and paint, and then try to figure out this.


It's the unfolded running gear, or at least the bulk of it. I'm not real sure how it all goes together.

I at least figured out why the jolly thing is so tall. All of the crew are standing, save the turret gunner! I think it gives it a good 'naval' feel myself, something I was trying to get.

Still, if I was to do this again, I'd make it longer, possibly half as much length again, to give it more engine/boiler room. It wouldn't matter so much that it wouldn't fit on a 60mm by 80mm HOTT Behemoth base, they are only guidelines afterall.

No matter, I can justify its stumpyness by saying that it was designed primarily as an infantry support weapon - slow and steady, designed to just stay with the Tommies rather than speed off on it's own in some kind of 19^th Century Blitzkrieg!

Cheers,

Nick