VSF Steam Generated Zappy Gun

Good evening,

As the term is winding down I decided to take some time out of school prep yesterday afternoon to work on a steam powered electricity generator...


...to power my HOTT VSF Zappy Artillery piece.



As per this...



Suffice it to say, it's not done yet!

The gun itself is the carriage from the HaT Gatling Gun that I plonked in my Steam Tank, with a connector from an old PC power supply and a tooth pick (!). I know the 'barrel' is pointing pretty high, but I figured that the 'zap' is actually bounced off a passing cloud to hit targets behind the enemy's front line!

The generator is a capacitor from said power supply, along with a couple of coils all sitting atop the carriages from the Gardiner Guns with which I adorned Andy's/my Air Boat. Suitably strengthened with a couple of tooth picks.

Once I've applied a bit of paint, I'll stick them down to the base, trim those wires and connect the zapper to the generator.

I've also put aside five figures (a signaler, two officers, the Boffin himself and a faithful manservant to do all of the actual work!), but I'm not sure if they'll all fit! I may have to prize them off their painting bases to see what will and won't fit - no point in painting stuff I ain't gonna use now is there? Lord knows I game with enough plastic without paint, it would be a crime to paint something and then not use it!

I'll class it as a HOTT Magician General. (After all, HOTT magicians are essentially artillery piecies that can shoot over intervening interruptions).

You know those Boffins - they can work magic! And the Brass does like to be seen to be taking an interest in these new fangled contraptions...

Nick

Crossfire Kiwis

Good afternoon,

Well, I've just discovered washes. Citadel's Devlan Mud, to be precise. Andy Gorman suggested that it would be a quick way to paint up some Esci WW2 Brits (as Kiwis - they were all using the same equipment, after all), and low and behold, so it has proven to be!





In fact, these figures are probably the quickest I have ever been able to apply paint to. Having only 6 colours also helped. Well, 7 if you count the Dark Flesh that I applied to the second platoon before applying the Bronzed Flesh.

1. Citadel Chaos Black undercoat


2. Vallejo Dark Flesh


3. Vallejo English Uniform using a very heavy dry brush (actually, a lightly applied wet brush)


4. Vallejo Middlestone for the webbing


5. Vallejo Beasty Brown for the weapon furniture and water bottles


6. Vallejo Olive Grey for the helmets and Piat guns


7. Vallejo Chainmail Silver for the, well, silver bits


8. Citadel Bronzed Flesh highlight


9. Heavy wash of Citadel Devlan Mud


10. Highlight/Dry brush of the English Uniform and Middlestone respectively

...and Bob's your uncle. (Well, Brian's my uncle...it's just a turn of phrase...how do you turn a phrase?)

Andy helped me with the first platoon (three bases - 9 figures) in one evening last week, and I completed a further 9 of the boys yesterday and based them this morning. For me, that's lightning quick!

(They definitely needed those final highlights, they were looking quite dark without it).

For WW2, I'm pretty sure this is the way to go. For figures where I want a nice bright finish (like my VSF) I'm probably going to stick to my layered approach...mind you, a combination of a bright highlight over the wash...yeah, that might work...

Speaking of VSF, I'm thinking of getting hold of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for some skirmishing using my Airboat, Steam Tank and upcoming Electric Artillery and Steam Buggy Rider HOTT elements. Can you use Airboats in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.?

Nick

Air Boat Kinda Done

Good afternoon,

Well, I've pasted the Gardiner Guns and crew atop Andy's Air Boat, and they look the biz.




It's a bit hard to see from this last photo (the camera's macro setting focused on the nearest Gardiner gun, rather than the whole 'vignette'), but the loader is one of the navy Gardiner crewmen with his arms replaced with the ones from the HaT Colonial Artillery loader, as inspired by S. M. Manix's contribution to HaT's Everything Toy Soldier page.

I also replaced an arm on the other main gun crewman, though the effect isn't a lot different to what he had originally.

Eventually I may put a solid railing/fence around the Gardiner guns, and I'll paste the officer with the telescope (once I've figured out how to do the braids on his jacket) on top by the ladder. Or on the bow. But I think closer to the bridge would make more sense, from a command perspective. In the meantime I'm happy enough to put it away.

Sweet, another thing down, now to work on my Late War Kiwis...oh, and that VSF steam driven magician artillery thingie I've got in mind, since I've got those spare gun carriages from the Gardiner and Gatling guns. A bit like this...



...with one carriage for the steam driven electricity generator and one for the electricity driven shooty thing, courtesy of a mad boffin type - hence the magician classification.

Nick

Steam Tank Update

Good morning,

Well, it's school holiday, so I've finally had some time to apply some paint to my Steam Tank. And yahoo! It's pretty much done!



As you can see, I chose to replicate the paint scheme that Andy applied to his (now my - yay!) Air Boat to try to give it more of a navy feel. I simply carefully applied some window masking tape, and mostly it worked quite well. The smoke is just some bear stuffing! Once it's based, I'm thinking of putting some down by the running gear.

Now for some closeups...







All in all, I'm really pleased with the silly little thing!

Next step, get Andy to base it for me to match the rest of his donated VSF army, and continue work on the Gardiner guns and crews.

Yay for school holidays!

Nick

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