Saturday WIP

I had thought to post some photos of the painting table/workdesk as a Saturday regular, as suggested by Sofie's Painting Blog but I've been rather disheartened by this week's progress.  Despite my declaration to spend November on things Dinosaur, I thought to finish my Cairo SID members.  So far, these are far from successful (white suits anyone?), so I haven't done anything since Tues.

I had done some work on one of the big-game hunters though, so I suppose that's a nod in the direction of Dinovember.  Another is that I've taken advantage of Fat Dragon Games' 30% off sale (ends on Monday) to get a cardstock Mole (suitable for getting to Lost Worlds at the Centre of the Earth) for $4.19.  They also have a nice aerial steam carriage for the same price.  If you do go to rpgnow to check these out, make sure you also have a look at the free stuff!  I got some more of the Dave Graffam free building kits.

Steam Contraption Thingie

Thanks for those who got in touch with me with suggestions when I said the other day that I wasn't quite sure what to do with the steamtank  I'd acquired.  Thanks also for not pointing out that it's not a steamtank, but a steam-armoured-car!  For reasons I'll explain in a minute, I'm now referring to it as the Steam Contraption.

As I've made my mind up, and as it's actually almost completed, I thought I'd do an update.

The illustration from the manufacturer's website

My first thought was to see what (ideas I could steal from the Internet) inspiration I could get from other people's efforts.  As you see above, Ironclad Miniatures have gone with battleship grey with a brass dome on the boiler.  Although I like the brassiness, I'm not too keen on the grey, so I carried on looking.

Most people seem to have gone for generic tank colours, in either green or desert shades.  I didn't want to do this, as it seemed a bit too modern, post-WWI and, dare I say, it Real World.  There is also a tendency amongst some to add mud and rust 'to give verisimilitude'.  Now mud is fine (even the horses pick up mud, after all), but in my world there is always a Jimmy-Number-One in the Naval Brigade or a BQMS giving merry hell to the poor sod who lets his kit stay dirty.  Rust would give them apoplexy!  [In defence of Maud in the picture below, the concept there is that she belongs to an irregular faction in the Very British Civil War of 1938.]

These are some of my favourites from what I was able to find.
Top left is HMLS Suffolk from Victoria's Boys in Red, bottom left is Maud from Heredforshire 1938 and
bottom right from Tobsen77.  Apologies to the owner of the WWI camo pic - I didn't note where it was from.

 But I wanted something a more Steamy and Victorian - I suppose a little more brass-goggle-ly.

I had a little look at some pictures of Late Victorian artillery pieces, but that only confirmed my impression that they came in a nice shade of gray-blue (influenced by the naval brigades?).  Not impressive enough for my purposes!

At this point The Wife said "You have to consider what your purposes are.  What would it be used for?"  "Exactly," I answered enthusiastically  "a paint-job that's geared towards battling Martian tripods in Berkshire isn't going to be much use on the return leg on Mars or fighting Selenites on the Moon..."  At this point I saw the look She was giving me (she believes that wargaming should be demilitarised) and decided not to expand on my conceit of an Italy where the Risorgimento didn't take place, the Papal States survived, Cardinal Manning was elected Pope Charles and then sent the Swiss Guard to participate in Scramble for Mars.

"No," She sighed "is it like a tank, or more of a traction engine?" 

This got me thinking.  Steam-tank was out and  the Steam Contraption Thingie was born.  I'd already toyed with the idea of Flying Scotsman green with brass, so I agreed with her that a VSF Admiralty would consider camouflage "damn'd un-British and underhand!".  We had a look at traction engines and decided that they were just the biscuit.

I quite like the paint-scheme of the one on the right, but when I tried my Vallejo 'Hull Red' it came out more of a mucky brown.

I'm afraid that because of camera difficulties I'm going to have to do 1,000 words rather than a single picture, but to cut a long story short, the Steam Contraption (and here you may have to refer back to the pic at the top of the page) ended up painted black.  The boiler dome, door fittings and window-frames are in brass.  Having done that, we decided (by now it was 'We' making the decisions!) to go the whole hog and pick out the rivets in brass (though I've never seen the Golden Rivet).  The wheels have followed the traction engine model and are in red (though I'm a little undecided on this).  She is still armed, and the Maxim is in gun-metal.  The result is quite pleasing.

The Steam Contraption Thingie has developed a personality, and consideration has to be given to naming her.  Any suggestions anybody?  I think The Empress (of Mars?) is suitably grandiose.

One of the off-shoots of this is that The Wife, who is interested in Steampunk and tolerates my miniatures being on the kitchen table, has had a look at VSF modelling.  She is suitably taken aback by Colonel O'Truth's blog and this morning found us discussing his method for hand-producing rivets!  "You should start saving bits of boxes and packaging rather than throwing them away" She said, frugally.  So I told her about the gash bin in the shed that contains all the things I've salvaged from the re-cycling pile.

I fear there is no hope for us and we will soon be as mad (though not as talented) as the Colonel!

Postscript

A little bird tells me that the Victorian army used steam contraption thingies in the Boer War.  The Fowler B.5 Armoured Road Locomotive was designed and built by traction engine builder John Fowler & Coof Leeds.  The armour proved a success (most of it was canabalised to make armoured trains), but as a practical vehicle the Fowlers were limited by their large consumption of coal and water, and the fact that they had no off-road capability.

A Fowler Armoured Road Locomotive

A model of the Fowler is produced by Old Glory in the States.  It looks as it could be interesting, though the front wheels seem odd.

Old Glory's Fowler

All this serves to remind me of something I thought about the Empress earlier today though: she really could do with a tender.

Shiney Things!

First an attack of Real World.  This might go some way to explaining why I've not been blogging so regularly over the last few months.

Last week I got sacked, or as the letter put it 'it was with regret I delivered my decision that your employment be terminated due to medical capability.'

Enough of that.

Lot 620 at DNW 25 Mar 2013

After a while I decided I need a little treat.  Normally I would get myself a nice book, but I fancied something a little different.

I can't afford anything at either of the medal auctions coming up this month (another thing I haven't blogged about!), so decided to go for something completely frivolous.




I've ordered a Steam Tank...

...and some Selenite Warriors.

I did consider a Mad Scientist, to go with some Killer Robots I've had my eyes on, but The Wife persuaded me That Would Be Silly.  Next time though...

The miniatures (28mm scale) are all from Ironclad Miniatures, from whom I've lifted the pics.  [I hope they don't mind as, in effect, I'm promoting their products, but if you're connected with them and want me to remove the pics, I will.]

They arrived today, and I'm very pleased with them.  I dare say they'll sit in the shed for ages before I decide to construct and paint them, but that isn't the point.

Books and Stuff...

What I've been reading this week...

I finished reading A Watery Grave. The mystery was a little thin, but I liked the setting and owe it to Joan to make the effort, so - as I had it on my shelf - I've jumped right into the next Wiki Coffin story, Shark Island.

I also started another book edited by another old Marhster, Capt Peter Hore.  It's Seapower Ashore: 200 Years of Royal Navy Operations on Land.  The intro went into the difference between a Mahanitte concept of seapower and the Corbettian view, but I'm hoping that the individual chapters will be a little lighter!  And so far, so good.  With contributions from people like Tom Pocock, Colin White and Andrew Lambert, it should be good stuff.

What I've bought this week...

James B Johnson The Alternate-Day Diet.  Actually, we ordered this almost six weeks ago  through a retailer using Amazon, after watching a very interesting docco on the telly by Michael Mosely.  The first copy went missing in the post, so we've had to wangle a second.  Michael Mosely (whose journalism we trust) was very positive about the technique, and the Amazon review were good.  We'll see.

...and downloaded for the Kindle

Journey to the Heart of Luna (Space: 1889 & Beyond Series, Book 1) by Andy Frankham-Allen- £1.98.

I've always liked the concept of Space 1889 but, not being a wargamer, never had the chance to delve into it.  I don't know if it'll stand up to my demanding standards when reading guff sci fi, but at two quid it'll provide an afternoon's entertainment or head to the delete bin.  I hoping for something like a mix of Robert Heinlein's juveniles and HG Wells' lighter works.

Not being an aficionado, I don't know whether it's considered Steampunk or whether VSF (Victorian Science Fiction) is a genre of it's own.  I stand to be corrected, but I suspect VSF consists of men in their forties with beards and beer-bellies (like me), whereas Steampunk is for dystopian vampires and girlies (in bustles).

How can you not like this sort of thing?

In fact, I'm very tempted to buy one of these steam tanks kits and have a bash at it.

Books and stuff

What I've been reading this week.

I've a few things open at the moment, but my main book has been Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt, part of his Jackelian Series.  In principal Steampunk has always appealed to me, but I've been let down by the practice - many writers in the genre just aren't any good.  This is an exception, and I've been enjoying it.  Apparently there are six novels in the series so far - it remains to be seen whether the momentum can be maintained.

I don't like to have more than one novel on the go at the same time, as one often suffers.  That's what's happened with A Watery Grave by Joan Druett.  I've read about half of the book in a couple of sittings the other week, but put it down and haven't picked it up since.

Joan is an old friend of mine from the old days on the maritime history discussion group marhst-l.  To tell the truth, I much prefer her non-fiction, but I've been meaning to give this book a go for quite a while.  It's the first in the Wiki Coffin Mystery Series.  Wiki is a Maori interpreter/guide on the United States Exploring Expedition, which set off in 1838 to chart and explore the Pacific.  In the best tradition, Wiki has to solve the odd murder...

The copy I've got is the American paperback edition.  As always, American paperbacks are much better quality than the ones we get here in the UK.  It's a pleasure to hold and read.  If paperbacks here were regularly this quality, Kindle and other e-books wouldn't be doing so well.

In non-fiction, I've been reading Howard Williamson's The Great War Medal Collectors' Companion.  This is a ground-breaking compendium of work, weighty in all senses of the word, and will make a big difference to the collecting field.  It's surprisingly well-produced - I expected something a little more 'self-published' in feel, but this is a substantial hardback, printed on glossy paper and with thousands (rather than hundreds) of illustrations.

Me:  [Describes the book before it arrived...]
Wife: That sounds expensive.
Me: Does it?  How expensive would you say?
Wife: £60.

She knows me too well, and was spot on with the price of course.  Luckily for me, Howard was kind enough to give me a free copy in return for some drudge work I doing on a project on the awards of the Military Medal.

I detect some sniffiness about this book over on the British Medals Forum.  I'm not sure why.

Some people, who are quite happy to drop £500 on medals, will baulk at the price of books.  This is short-sighted and goes against the advice we always spout to new-comers.  As has been pointed out, if this £60 stops you buying a 1914 Star with a fake bar, it's paid for itself.  If it helps you pick out an MM for the first day of the Somme among all the other MMs on a dealer's list, it's made you a couple of hundred quid.  Apart from anything else, once the edition has sold-out copies will be selling well in advance of the cover price.  Sadly, medal reference works are never cheap!

On my 'to-read' list

My wife is pressing me to read Sergei Lukyanenko's The Night Watch.  But it's the first in a series of thick books and Russian...

One series I've been meaning to try out is The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (the first book is Storm Front).  They're about a private eye who happens to be a wizard and specialises in the paranormal cases the Chicago Police Department are stumped by.  It might be fun, it might be spectacularly bad...

I've been meaning the read Vol 6 of William Laird Clowes The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to 1900.  Earlier in the summer I read Vol 7 (yes, I know, it's the wrong order), which covered the period from the Second China War (1856-1860) to Queen Victoria's death (1901 and the Boer War). I found it a surprisingly good read.  Vol 6 covers the War of 1812 to the Crimea War (1854).

What I've bought this week

Nothing.  That's not surprising, but as it was my birthday is a bit disappointing.

I had girded my loins to buy WH Fevyer's The Distinguished Service Medal 1914-1920, but the one I'd sourced on Bookfinder for £10 turned out to be The DSM, 1939-1945.  The actual copies of the book were more than I was prepared to pay.  Note how quickly I've changed my tune about the short-sightedness of trying to buy cheap medal books!