Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and that means progress! We start this week with some 3D printed construction style robots from Tony F. He has also been scratchbuilding some other sci-fi pieces with a few 3D printed gubbings thrown in for good measure.

Moving on and I think Mark J has finally finished painting his 10mm French and German early WW2 forces.

And the French forces, apparently these are both ready for a game of the ‘O’ Group rules from Two Fat Lardies.

Next we have Stephen who has started on a Quar tankette, he has swapped the crew member to the faction he is collecting. I won’t pretend to know the factions but I’m thinking of collecting Quar myself.

Moving on we have Phil who has continued with his 10mm Lords of the Rings orc army with some more trolls.

And lastly for this week I’ve made some scale agnostic volcanic craters. I actually made them out of a type of plastic that you can mould when warm and sets rock hard when cold. The lava was created with some orange translucent hot glue.

And so we will see you next Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We start this work in progress Wednesday with some Slaine fantasy from Eric. First Slaine himself mid spasm change! Followed by some other celtic warriors and a roman.

Taking to the air and Mark H has been working on some US Navy Skyraiders and North Korean Yak9P’s from Tumbling Dice. He has also started on some bridges that will no doubt be targets of a future game.

Stephen has fiished his warlord made from a couple of diferent miniatures spliced together.

And he has put the finishing touches to his oasis.

Now we have Tony F and some rather impressive Cacti, these were desk ornaments found in Ikea. In front of them are some cyber dogs.

And lastly this week, I’ve painted up a couple more mechs, this time a Blood Asp and Warhawk.

And with that we will see you next week.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We are running out of Wednesdays for 2025 but we start this one with some of my progress. First up I scratch built some 6mm fuel dump pieces, and while on the 6mm kick I painted up some Mechs. First ones in at least 30 years!

Moving on and Mark J has gone back to painting more 10mm WW2 german armour after spending time on the French forces.

Next up and Tony F has been working on various crates. Thes sci-fi pieces are scratch built from ammo trays, not that he has lots of bullets to store but you can pick them up as futuristic pallets. One set has actual bought crates the other is a chopped up plastic waste pipe.

He has also painted up some wooden crates for a more traditional setting.

Stephen is in a crusading mood with the start of a Warlord made from splicing together a couple of different miniatures.

And the start of a scratch built oasis to give him somewhere to lead his horse to. I’m sure there will be some palm trees to accompany this.

And with that we will see you next week.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to Wednesday and this week we start with some bones. Tony F has been building some terrain, this time the remains of some gigantic beast.

Thinking of beasts, he has also painted up these two vicious looking bugs.

Moving on and another of our Tony’s, Tony P this time has continued amassing his Greek warriors and a temple for a bit of flavour.

And some more warriors with what looks like a champion out front.

Sticking with quantity and Mark J has moved on to some French infantry and support guns for his 10mm WW2 project.

There’s going to be a lot of units on the board when he’s done.

And with that we will see you next week.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday again so let’s take a look at what our society members have been working on.
We start this week with Mark J who has continued to with his 10mm WW2 project with more buildings and armour.

Next up is me, I’ve been having a go at crates covered with tarp/canvas. Used a dried out glasses wipe for these, covered in PVA glue.

Now for something unusual, Phil is working on a Kate Bush themed Stargrave game and these are some of the loot tokens.

On the subject of Stargrave Charlotte has been painting some Fallout charatcer miniatures also for a future Stargrave game.

And finally for this week Tony F has put together a futuristic tower from (in his own words) an industrial thread bobbin, while the top is a cheap curtain rail finial.

And with that we will see you next week.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to the Work in Progress Wednesday post. I’m starting this week with some alien plants made out of pasta. My previous set were 16 years old so thought I’d make some more. I’ve also purchased a 3D printed skeleton of a dragon to use as scenery. It’s not a very good printing but will be fine as a bit of dressing for the battlefield.

Next up and Mark J has been busy paiting up 10mm scale early war tanks and other vehicles.

Something out of left field now, Tony F painted up a couple of characters for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy themed Stargrave game. Here we have Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Thor.

And last for this week Tony had also created an interesting piece he’d seen another gamer make to keep track of the order players go in a turn. It worked really well for the game we played .

And with that we will see you next Wednesday.

Engagement At Tuy Hoa

Engagement at Tuy Hoa – March 1968

After the casualties taken fighting in and around Dak To in the final months of 1967, 2nd Battalion of the 173rd Airborne returned to barracks in Tuy Hoa to rest, refit, and train replacements.

Throughout February 1968 key towns and cities in Vietnam have been rocked by the Tet Offensive. For the most part, the 173rd Airborne have not been involved in the offensive. However, intelligence has come in that units of NVA with VC sappers are planning an assault on Tuy Hoa Air Base. To prevent this your company has been deployed north of Tuy Hoa to block the enemy advance. You will take up position in the area of Nha Long village. As such, this is NOT a free fire zone – all support fire (that includes company mortars) will require authorisation. Additionally, you may not fire small arms at targets within 6” of any village building without authorisation.

The enemy are expected to be arriving from the North West.

Report from Cpt P Smith CO of Alpha Company 173rd Airborne
The Battle Rages

Intelligence had confirmed that Communist forces were advancing towards the US Airbase at Tuy Hoa. The 173rd Airborne Division were tasked with blocking and destroying the enemy in the vicinity to the north and west of the village of Nha Long.

The 1st Platoon, led by Lieutenant Francis, and the Weapons Platoon were deployed to the east of the village and advanced immediately to the west. The squads of the 1st Platoon took up positions to the north, south, and within the village, while the Weapons Platoon advanced westwards, north of Nha Long. We soon made contact with enemy forces to the west in light cover and to the northwest in light cover on higher ground.

I promptly requested authorisation to activate our company mortars to lay down a barrage on the enemy troops to the northwest.

Lieutenant Francis’ 1st Platoon engaged VC sappers to the east of the village. The Weapons Platoon’s M60 machine gun teams provided long-range fire against an NVA platoon to the west. As the engagement intensified, the villagers in the adjacent paddy fields quickly sought cover within the village. Meanwhile, the company’s Dog Team was dispatched to the village at a rapid pace to search for hidden caches of food and ordnance. Thanks to their diligent efforts, a substantial quantity of rice and several satchel charges were discovered.

Lieutenant King’s 2nd Platoon and Lieutenant Claridge’s 3rd Platoon received orders to deploy via Huey transport helicopters in succession. The 2nd Platoon disembarked in open terrain to the north of Nha Long, despite encountering some ineffective small arms fire from the ground. The gunship escorting the transport Hueys provided covering fire to ensure a successful landing and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy to the front of 1st Platoon before taking evasive action to evade more intensive ground fire from adjacent enemy units.

As the 2nd Platoon commenced their advance from the landing position, the mortar barrage was promptly authorised and initiated on the enemy positions to the west. This stalled the enemy’s advance by pinning them down. The barrage was halted to allow Lt. Claridge’s 3rd Platoon to deploy in a Hot LZ in open ground closest to the enemy.

As 3rd Platoon rapidly disembarked from the Huey transports, they took one fatal casualty as they came under enemy small arms fire, RPGs and sniper fire. Again, the Huey Gunship delivered sustained heavy fire on the enemy positions on the ground. As a consequence, the VC sapper platoon was broken and dispersed from the field.

Shortly after an NVA platoon withdrew from the field as it took heavy casualties from the Gunship and all three of our company’s platoons. An air strike was requested and authorised to attack enemy positions on the high ground to the northwest, but the enemy withdrew before the aircraft arrived.

Along with the food and ordnance caches, a high number of enemy bodies were recovered after the engagement which indicates how the enemy dispersed from the field in disarray.
Although, regrettably, our company took 3 fatal casualties, overall this was an outstandingly successful mission.

Report from Lt T Francis 1st Platoon
1st Platoon Walks Down The Road

Acting on orders from my company commander, I deployed first platoon either side of the main highway, with two squads up and one in reserve. The weapons platoon and company HQ were to our left flank in the open ground. The platoon advanced steadily, keeping an eye out for enemy troops both in the village and on the ridge line beyond the huts, although no definitive sightings were made.

When the weapons platoon were engaged by enemy forces, I ordered first squad to lay down fire in support of them and third squad to advance to take their place and enter the village. Local Vietnamese non-combatants generally kept their distance, although one pointed third squad to a place where he told them that VC forces had stored supplies – this turned out to be a red herring and nothing was found.

First squad continued to engage enemy forces on the edge of the jungle to the north west of the village in support of the weapons platoon, with several hits claimed. Meanwhile, second squad had spotted what turned out to be NVA troops to the east of the village beyond the paddy fields. Judging that they were outside of the restricted zone around the settlement, I ordered them to open fire. Third squad moved through the village and engaged further NVA forces directly north of their position with immediate effect.

The platoon consolidated its position, all squads continuing to engage the enemy, until the aerial insertion of third platoon swiftly alleviated any pressure from NVA forces to our front. I advanced first and second squads in line with the north of the village, at which point it became clear that the enemy had broken.

First platoon’s advance to, and defence of, the village ensured that enemy forces were unable to emplace themselves within it and create a stronghold from which it would have been difficult to eject them. That the operation was carried out without casualties is testament to the skill and professionalism of the American soldier.

Report from Lt A King 2nd Platoon
2nd Platoon Advances Down The Ridgeline

2nd Plt under 2LT King was inserted by UH-1 helicopters on the left flank of the company’s advance, near the edge of a lightly wooded area and close to a patch of elephant grass to the west and northwest of Nha Long village.

On approach to the LZ hostile forces were spotted on a hill within the woods and in the elephant grass. The platoon’s gunship escort engaged the enemy in the Elephant Grass with machine gun fire, causing a number of casualties. The pilot requested approval to use rockets on the hostiles in the woods, due to the mission Rules of Engagement, but this was not received.
1st and 2nd squads, the latter with the platoon LT, disembarked from their slicks and hunkered down, engaging the enemy to their front, pinning them down. 3rd squad disembarked and moved rapidly into the woods, with the intention of advancing on the enemy flank.

1st and 2nd squads came under fire from approximately platoon strength forces, causing some shock and one casualty KIA in 1st squad, Pfc Simms.

3rd squad advanced through the woods and, on reaching a slight rise in the terrain, hunkered down to engage the enemy forces on the wooded hill to their north.

As the slicks lifted off to collect 3rd Platoon, the Huey Gunship repositioned to engage the enemy, but was driven off by some lucky shooting by the enemy.

The enemy in the elephant grass was hit by mortar fire called in by other elements of the company, this, together with the steady fire from 1st squad caused them to lose their nerve and withdraw.

1st Squad had not come through this firefight unscathed, in addition to the KIA they suffered they also had suffered some shock. 2LT King moved up to 1st Squad to provide encouragement, they then advanced onto the vacated enemy position and through diligent searches uncovered a punji pit the enemy had left behind, with no further casualties suffered.
2nd and 3rd Squads, having suffered no casualties, advanced through the woods towards the enemy on the hill, but these troops fell back, perhaps due to casualties inflicted on other elements of the enemy forces by the rest of the Company.

1st Squad was about to police the remains of the enemy they had been fighting when elements of 3rd and Weapons platoon took the position.

2nd platoon’s deployment between the 1st & Weapon’s Platoons and the woods helped tie down around 2 platoons of enemy troops and helped prevent enemy forces, later discovered to be a mixture of NVA and VC Sappers, from reaching Nha Long village.

Report from Lt J Claridge 3rd Platoon
Apocalypse Now

The engagement at Tuy Hoa had been in full swing for a while. 3rd Platoon were on standby having just watched 2nd Platoon take off and head for the landing zone. As the radio traffic became more frantic the order finally came to go.

Embarking on the UH-1 transports and accompanied by a Gunship it was clear this was going to be a rough ride. More radio traffic told of a NVA sniper causing trouble and several hits from a concealed RPG team.

As 3rd Platoon flew over the LZ orders came through from the CO of the 173rd to land in a forward position almost on top of the encroaching VC forces near the village. 3rd Squad disembarked into a hail of enemy fire suffering a casualty in the process and becoming pinned. The squad had no choice but to hunker down and return fire.

Meanwhile the supporting gunship peeled of and laid down a devastating fire against the VC.

Receiving further orders from the CO to step up the rate of fire the VC were routed bringing a much-needed reprieve.

The supporting gunship searched for other targets and managed to destroy the RPG team. This was the last straw for the NVA and VC, they began to withdraw from the field leaving our forces to lick their wounds.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We are covering quite a lot of genres this week with our Work in Progress Wednesday post.

We start with Charlotte having put the final touches to their Stargrave Crew. They have already been planetside so expect a Stargrave report coming soon.

We move on to  fantasy now and Phil has painted up a number of 10mm 3D printed trolls.

And yet more 10mm 3D printed Orcs, some archers this time to make a change from all the infantry.

Moving on to something historical but also in 10mm and Mark J has been painting up some early war German infantry.

Apparently he has managed two battalions done in a week!

Now on to something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. 16 years ago I made some alien plants out of pasta, and thought it was about time to make some more. Think I’ll go for a bright colour this time.

And I’ve put the finishing touches to my Starwars toy turned into a smaller scale sci-fi building.

And last for this week back to the historical with some medieval welsh archers from Stephen. Destined to swell the ranks of his Barons War armies.

And with that we will see you next Wednesday.

A Mars A Day

The last meeting of July saw another outing of my ‘Space:1889 – Cloudships of Mars’ game.

For those who don’t know it, it’s a game based on a 1988 Frank Chadwick design for GDW, set in an alternative ‘Steampunk’ late Victorian timeline on which Earther scientists have discovered a war to get to the planets using the ‘ether waves’ of space (this was actually a theory for a long time!). When the explorers arrive, they discover that the inner planets already have their own civilisations, at different stages of development.

In the case of Mars, the ancient society has stagnated (or deteriorated) back to the level of our own late Renaissance of Italy or India, with rival City-States using gunpowder weapons – along with the odd ‘ancient device’ like a La-serr…. By the 1889 of the title, several Earther nations have established both colonies, trading and mining facilities on Mars, sometimes with a City State as an ally, sometimes as enemies, exactly mirroring the colonial experience on Earth of 1850-1900.

And whilst ground-based forces certainly play their part, as on Earth it is the naval dimension with projects power across the vast, hostile wastes – using flying ‘Cloudships’ which rely on a rare anti-gravity liftwood to allow them to float. The Martians tend to rely on larger, wooden galleys, propelled by sail or giant flywheels; but the Earthers have been quick to develop their own strange craft, powered – of course – by steam engines, producing some very different designs rather akin to the ACW. In 3D… Anyways, there is a large body of RPG, tabletop and boardgame reference material (see links at the end), plus some ‘reimaginings’ of the various planetary sourcebooks.

The Set-Up

For this outing, I decided to have all the actual players as a combined ‘Earth Fleet’, with the Martians run by yours truly as umpire using the ‘fast play’ system developed for when we ran this at several Open Days a couple of years ago. This is always a fun way to arrange things, as I can vary the enemy ‘teeth’ according to how players are doing (as well as how many turn up on the day), and they can have a lot of fun simply trying to co-ordinate the actions of these sub-units via another human, not a dice or card system.

With one player per ship and a, ah, wide choice available, the fleet consisted of:

  • Jon – Royal Navy, HMS Tempest (1890 Improved Typhoon Class destroyer, with quick-firing main guns [2x shots instead of one per turn])
  • Tony – Imperial Russian Navy, HIRMS Volga (River Class strike bomber)
  • Eric – Imperial Austrian Navy, SMS Prinz Eugen (Hero Class light cruiser; only one built…)
  • Stephen – Imperial Japanese Navy, IJN Akagi (unclassified multi-role cruiser, refuses to discuss how many being built, where, when…)
  • Alan – French Navy, FS Massena (new Maréchal’s Class destroyer; like the RN Tempest – but more panache…)
Game 1 – The Bridge At Rik-I-To

The scenario here was that war was brewing with two of the Martian City States who had put aside their normal differences and were about to combine forces to sweep the accursed Earthers from the face of Holy Mars. Or something. Anyways, as their plan hinged on having one force cross the giant canal network, the combined Earther response was to pool their Cloudship forces to strike at the key bridge at Rik-I-To. If that could be destroyed, it would take weeks or months to effect a temporary repair. Of course, as it was an important spot, the Martians would be guarding it, not just with part of their fleet on standing patrol, but also with large deadly ground-based rockets…

[And yes, the plot was another semi-historical ‘steal’ of the main action in the Korean War film ‘The Bridges At Toko-Ri’. Great film of F9 Panthers, if you’re into that sort of thing…]

Now, being a simple soul, I rather expected the smaller ships to zoom in and take-out the rocket batteries before helping to distract the slower Martian ships? Yeah…. Anyways, plan B seemed to be that Jon, Eric and Alan engage in a general melee with all the Martians they could possibly reach, while Stephen and Tony ploughed in low and slow to maximize their bombing accuracy, with occasional pot-shots at any Martian who happened to get in the way!

So, with rockets and gunfire going in all directions and at different heights, the fight split into two sectors:

  • The ‘top cover’ proceeded to knock large chunks out of the three Martian ships, Jon using his bigger guns to deliver deadly jabs from a series of fast, slashing runs whilst Alan deftly manoeuvered to rake one guard ship which effectively dis-masted it! Eric meanwhile was in the thick of it trading broadsides between two enemy ships but seemingly unable to hit with any big guns! He was revenged however when finally ramming one of the larger galleys which Jon’s close rake with a rocket broadside had brought to a halt!
  • The ‘bomber’ boys meanwhile braved both rocket flak and the attentions of a, ah, ‘spare’(?) Martian ship to bore-in, line ahead along the canal. Stephen on Akagi led the charge, shrugging off a number of critical hits to boiler, crew and gun position hits to deliver his two sticks bang on target, with no deductions for speed:height differences. His score with eight d6 was a very respectable 24 points – but the bridge still stood teetering! However, close behind was the majestic Volga with even more majestic (=sloshed) Kapitan Tony, who proceeded, slowly, to ignore all the incoming hits and demolish the remaining structure, closely followed by the tailing even more irate Martian which the others now noticed! So that’s what those signals from Akagi meant…….

In all the dust, explosions and rocket trails, there was some confusion on the Allied side about who should get the most credit in the Official History for destroying the bridge (you know, the objective thingy…). So, I thought the easiest – not to say funniest – method of adjudication would be to ask the so-called ‘neutral’ captains. To a man, they had no hesitation in awarding the lion’s share of the credit to Tony and the Russians, with no national bias at all (except that Alan did waver in thinking the French should vote the other way to whatever the British did!). I thought Stephen as the Japanese took it very well, considering. All the talk of sabotage and revenge was just banter……

Game 2 – Get Marshal Mo-To-Ya

The second thinly-disguised scenario was based on the amazing operation in 1943, when the Americans sent very long range P38s (a fab a/c) to intercept Japanese strategic genius Admiral Yamamoto, who had planned and executed the Pearl Harbour attack (which only really failed because they delegated command to an old school ‘battleship’ admiral; but I digress…).

So, our 1889 version had the Japanese player (Stephen) brief the others that they had broken the Martian codes, and that the brilliant leader Grand Marshal Mo-To-Ya would be reviewing the various fleet detachments before hurling their combined strength blah, blah, blah. The key thing is, they knew where and when he would be at a certain city. Normally, this would be beyond effective range of Earther Cloudships, but the Royal Navy (Jon) then revealed that, apart from building the enormous HMS Thunderbird, they had also been quietly developing long-range re-coaling systems, a series of liftwood barges which could be towed then ‘parked’ at high altitude for later collection – like WW2 drop-tanks! I also took the opportunity to allow each ship 1x ‘elite’ gun crew – only a +1 to hit, but it soon became apparent how even a small adjustment to probabilities affected tactics!

The Allied flotilla thus set-off and arrived just as the Martian fleet hove into view through the clouds. The rather larger than expected fleet…. Ah. Yes, what confronted our intrepid floating heroes was not one Martian ‘Skylord’, one of the biggest Cloudship classes ever built, but two. As even one Skylord was estimated to carry the firepower of more half the Allied Flotilla, this was seen by the more tactically astute players as “…bloody serious…”!

Not only that, but the Grand Marshal also had three of the newer Martian ‘hybrid’ cruisers as escort, Martian built but incorporating Earther technology supplied by less scrupulous nations: big breech-loading guns and steam-power rams (although the latter were in fact clapped-out US train engines, refurbished and resold). Nevertheless, such an opportunity to cripple the enemy war effort before it got fully started was too good to miss, so as the Martians headed for the exit (off the far end of the table), the Allies resolved to sell their lives dearly (or lease them dearly, in the case of the French. Well, you get more return that way, and….).

  • As the giant Skylords were primarily sail-powered, Jon and Tony were among the first to point out that – at some point – these lumbering giants would have to tack (zig-zag), which meant there was more time to get them.
  • Learning from the first scenario, the players all kept saying to each other that the Grand Marshal was the objective, nothing else – so slip past the escorts if possible and pound the two Skylords with everything to hand!

Overall, the plan went quite well – Alan ‘stalked’ one of the escorts using cloud cover to get close before taking any return fire, while Tony and Stephen seemed to be competing for how much explosives they could throw at one ship! Meanwhile, as Eric took on the other Skylord with his now elite Skoda howitzer, Jon was perfecting his ‘left jab’, using his speed and longer, harder reach to knock seven bells out of an escort which was blocking his view (and in the process eliminating much of the bridge crew, thus making control much harder – not that they knew this immediately).

Stephen at one point sailed straight through the middle of the Martian Fleet, partly as his ship had good firepower in the armoured forward arc, but little else – except….. Yes, although he exchanged some withering fire with one Skylord and an escort, his master plan was revealed when he launched the rear-facing torpedo straight into the escort which was turning onto his tail! At that range – just outside the safety zone – the hit was inevitable, and the Martian visibly shuddered and began to lose height (that’s not all it lost, but again full damage was secret).

One great aspect for me with such games is how players learn to ‘read’ a battle, deducing both strengths and weaknesses from observable data. Such was now the case as the battle entered its critical phase, when first Alan then Eric mentioned that one of the Skylords, although damaged for sure, was not firing anywhere near as much as the other – which might mean that it was a transport, not the ‘battleship’ version?

Quickly deciding that the Grand Marshal would use the most powerful ship, the Allies now concentrated their fire. Jon now took quite serious personnel casualties from cannister rakes when closing to deliver a point-blank rocket barrage into the side of the enormous ship, while Eric also pounded it from the other side, starting numerous fires – bad news for a wooden ship! As Tony narrowly avoided a deadly ramming attack from the only functioning escort (sadly, the one with almost no directional control!), Alan and and badly-damaged Stephen sent the transport and the other escort into uncontrolled descents (the escort could probably crash-land ok, but the transport was not so lucky). As the Allies regrouped, they could see that only the smaller escort still had enough height (and control) to escape, but their initial fears about the other Skylord joining it were finally settled as the giant vessel, wracked with multiple fires and with key commanders dead on the bridge, made a long, lumbering dive just outside the city, in the manner of the Hindenburg………

So that was that. Another excellent outing for a genre which deserves a helluva lot more exposure, whether it be the RPG system, pseudo-colonial ground games, or this fabulous ‘Cloudships’ offshoot. It’s not the ‘flying WW1’ of Iron Skies, nor the Aeronef and Dystopian Wars – although the latter two did provide a lot of scratch-building materials! But if you like the idea of ‘3D ACW’, with the ability to construct your own range of peculiar vessels, then this is for you.

My thanks as ever to my long-suffering friends at Maidstone Wargame Society for playing, and The Werelords for resurrecting a brilliant game.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a few shots of the action.

Tactical aside – the Wrong Side of Technology?

There was a lot of discussion afterwards about the merits of the different ship designs – were the fast, sleek British and French (with only a handful of big guns, smaller hulls and crews), better than the rugged, somewhat slower Russian and Austro-Hungarians, with a lot more but smaller weapons? And what of Akagi, with an armoured nose housing all of its big ship-smashers in fixed forward firing casemates, akin to an Me110, but little else?

This all reminded me very much of similar historical arguments along similar lines both in the Victorian period (when turrets first came along), and then later about battlecruisers. In the latter case, they were great when used in their original role, chasing-down and destroying enemy cruisers, but were a disaster when used to bulk-out the main battleship lines “…because they look like them…”?!

In the end, both historically and with Cloudships, there was no ‘correct’ answer. The beauty of the system is that you can let your imaginations rip and, within the spirit of the game (the main rules have a sub-section devoted to ship design, with weight and armour affecting speed – and cost), create your own range of ships and models.

References & Links:
  • Background to ‘Space:1889’ on Wikipedia
  • More about the various games and RPG systems via Boardgamegeek
  • Several of the Cloudships books are on eBay, and some are now old enough to appear on some cheap download sites as PDFs!
  • The first outing of this – in 25mm no less – is still viewable here on the Werelords site.
  • Superb 1/1000th scale scenery (and lobbying to print some 3D Cloudships?) via Tony at Brigade Models. Go on, you know you want to….
Scratch-building 6mm Cloudships

A lunatics’ guide to building your own fleets…

HULLS & MAIN BODIES

1. Brigade Models – their rightly-famous ‘Imperial Skies’ range has some useful hulls and other pieces. And even though they are technically 1/1200th, you just have to look beyond that to possible uses… Recently, I have also used several of their vast range of very nice spaceships to provide the basis for things like ‘assault ships’, carriers, even resupply barges and landing-craft!
2. Peter Pig 1/600th ACW Naval range – A great source of whole or partial hull elements. By using ‘N’ gauge wooden planking as a main deck, you can use various waterline models as the upper and lower hulls. Also, some of the Union monitors come with metal decks, and these make for great ‘advanced’ Earther ships like the medium/heavy British ‘Macefield’.
3. DeAgostini ‘Star Wars’ die-cast models – given the wacky nature of several Martian ships, with a small degree of effort several of these models can be used to great effect. And as die-cast, they’re (a) good to take glue, and (b) damn-near indestructible!
a. I started with the various ‘bikes’, just used upside-down to help disguise their origin! The ‘prongs’ on the front of many of them look great as rams!
b. I also cannot recommend highly enough the ‘Jabba Barge’ (makes a great heavy Martian ‘Hullcutter’ type) and the equally fab ‘Desert Skiff’ (again, makes for a wonderful range of medium vessels)
c. But do check out the MTT transport and some of the other AT* tanks. The ‘Turbo Tank’ makes for a great ironclad (minus the wheels, naturally!). And the ‘chicken walker’ main body is a perfect Martian ‘leading chin’ design.
4. Eaglemoss ‘Star Trek’ die-cast models – not quite so many useful hulls here but still worth checking. For example, the early USS Antares, used inverted, makes for a fabulous small Earther French ironclad, in the same class as the RN workhorse ‘Aphid’. And some of the alien shuttles or freighters can make a good basis for more Martians.
5. Mechwarrior – the various tanks from the miniatures game (minus their tracks) have provided several very handy hull extensions.
6. Star Wars Starship Miniatures – no, not ‘X-Wing’ (unless you have a private income); I mean from the original game. These have provided a lot of the ‘tail controls’ for various ships, the Boda Slave 1 and Sith Infiltrator being particular favourites.
7. Galoob Micro-Machines have a very good Star Wars Jabba Sail Barge, which has provided, umm, ‘quite a few’ Martian landing craft, torpedo boats and even – cut in half – useful prows or flying bridges for larger ships.
8. Heroics & Ros 1/300th – Their WW2 armoured trains are a great source of cabins, armoured hull-extensions and side sponsons. Likewise, their Crusades range of siege equipment and superb armoured Hussite wagons provide great ready-made wing/sponsons for the Martians.
9. Irregular Miniatures – do a great couple of ACW ships actually in this scale, especially ‘Monitor’, which formed the primary hull for the RN ships.
10. ‘Dystopian Wars’ – again, nominally a different scale they have several ships which I have used for hulls or engine pods.

WEAPONS

Mainly dear old Heroics & Ros. Not only are they immensely friendly and helpful, but they have a vast range of kit which is spot-on for what you need:

  • WW1 guns (German 77mm etc)
  • WW2 guns (British 25lbr, German 88mm, 17ldr – all suitably ‘trimmed’)
  • ‘Oddities’ like the WW2 German Nebelwerfer; makes a great ‘Martian mortar’
  • WW2 Armoured trains (AA guns etc)
  • ECW, SYW and Napoleonic (French) guns, with the double-trail
  • ACW and FPW Gatlings, Mitrailleuse MGs
  • Colonial Landing Party Nordenfelts
FIGURES

As for crews, I have used the following H&R packs:

  • Colonial types and Franco-Prussian for Earther regulars, Boers & Confederates for armed civvies and ‘security personnel’
  • Gun crew figures (from the ECW & medieval)
  • SYW ‘Iroquis’ Indians (the light clothing and ‘Mohican’ hair-do is just right for Martians)
  • Ancient Greeks (again, the helmet + crest is spot-on for Martians)

There are some wonderful little vignettes in these packs – I love the guy with a wheelbarrow loaded with cannon-balls! And even the colonial gun-teams have a pair of riders who remind me of a couple of gunners on their break…
I did see some other interesting ranges in the USA – some ‘post-apocalypse’ types make for great Martians. Likewise, if anyone knows of any LOTR ‘elves’, they too would be good.

DETAILING

If even a klutz like me can do this, please give it a try – just adding a few crew figures and the odd pile of coal sacks really brings even these small ships to life.
Model railways have (especially in ‘N’ gauge):

  • packs of coal sacks, bales (cargo) etc.
  • some great ‘signal gantries’ which provided not only some great wing/sponsons, but also (cut down to half height) the ‘brass railings’ for the posher Earther ships.
  • Packs of wooden fences, which make for cheap railings on Earther or Martian ships

Mechwarrior
Not only hulls but most of the rocket pods came from these (the tanks are VERY well-equiped!). I also used some of the smaller weapon turrets as rail-launchers for Martian fire bombs or anti-personnel spikes.
DeAgostini die-cast models
Things like the Ewok ‘hang-glider’ and various solar-sailors provide a variety of strong, ready-made plastic sails for Martian kites, some with rigging!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another Work in Progress Wednesday, I’m going to be cheeky and start with something I’ve been working on. I’ve scratchbuilt some sci-fi industrial buildings, these will work for 3mm and 6mm games.

Moving on and more WW2 stuff from Mark J, we start with some gun crews for the guns we previously mentioned.

And some defending volkssturm for very late war scenarios.

Jumping back to the medieval and Stephen has painted up some men at arms for his Barons war armies.

After various other animals Tony F has also completed more livestock. little did we know they would be appearing in a Stargrave game, and not in a friendly way!

Tony also manged to finish his scratchbuilt telegraph poles.

And with that we will see you next Wednesday.