The Power of the Heimudbär

These four are Heimudbär-class sea-going monitors, in 1/1000 scale, and are mostly entirely fictional. I finished them a little after the Charles Martel / ZS Lakardo.

They are sort of inspired by Norwegian/Swedish traditional monitor warships of the ironclad age, continuing to serve in various capacities well into WW1. As you can see some of them are modernized, others are not.

The small fleet will be part of the Nordsburian Navy in my imagi-nations setting, an up and coming power in the far off colonies, away from any main conflict. Their primary adversary will be the Zinqaguri Navy. At the time when Nordsbur commences a campaign of agression on Zinqaguri merchant shipping, all they have are these, a few coastal defence ships and armored cruisers. The Zinqaguri have two very capable battleships, but as Cape Zinqagrech divides the waterways between two major oceans, they have to split their forces.

The models are just pieces of 2mm balsa sanded to shape, and coated in a dark grey. Various bits of plastic offcuts were used to create the minimalistic superstructures. Most of them have short-barreled big guns, but the pair in the middle has some more modern smaller bore pieces. Were they blessed with decent speed they could be used for commerce raiding - provided there is a flat calm sea.

Trashy Fleets - When Life Gives You Lemnos...

I started working on the USS Mississippi-class pre-dreadnought battleship that later became the RHN Lemnos a while before the Hood and I managed to complete both at about the same time.

My main concern with US-made warships was, of course, modelling the lattice masts. This is not a problem at smaller scales as I just make a tapered conical rod and paint on the detail. However, in 1/1000 scale this was not feasible.

Delving into the internet somebody on some forum mentioned plastic nets in which they stored fruit in supermarkets as lattice mast material, so I first got some oranges and tried to use the net they were stored in, but it proved too big. Next I bought some garlic in a similar package albeit with smaller gaps in the netting, and it worked just fine!

So I know technically the Lemnos had her main mast switched to a traditional battle mast later, but for experimental purposes (and to make the pun in the title) I had mine retain both.

The Mighty ZS Lakardo (Not Quite Charles Martel)

As part of my ongoing 1/1000 scale Trashy Fleets exploits, I'm finally done with the almost Charles Martel, she is joining the Zinqaguri Navy, a peripheral minor power in my world of imagi-nations. Being quite fancy AND a battleship, she is going to bear the fleet admiral's flag.

Steaming alongside the Charles Martel, or as she will be known in Zinqagur, the ZS Lakardo, is the small torpedo boat destroyer TB-1 Marsal, modelled after the real world Claymore-class French ship, so they are kind of matching.

The only ahistorical element of the battleship is the fact that I left a tier of the main deck out, so the fore and aft main turrets are on the same level, while in fact the rear one should be placed a bit lower.

Trashy Fleets WIP #2

Inspired by, among other things, Archduke Piccolo's recent posting about his scratchbuilt pre-dreadnought battleships, I dug out my own work-in-progress hulls and proceeded a good deal with building them.

The Swedish coastal defence ship Äran got a full paintjob, all she needs now is a layer of gloss acrylic medium and finish on her base (and gluing the hull to said base).

The not-quite Charles Martel (forgot an extra layer of superstructure) also starts to look like herself, finished all twele turrets (the French designers just got a little bit overboard with that aspect) and installed the cabin windows, stacks and upper platform. As you can see I also did a little bit of pre-painting on hard to reach areas. Her main hull will be finished in dark grey, upper structure yellow ochre and the deck a linoleum color.

There are also a few hulls of Tordenskjold-class monitors in the background, more on them at a later time.

Trashy Fleets WIP - HSwMS Äran and MNF Charles Martel

 

I try to post regularly these days (usually on Mondays because then I would have time to gather materials durink the weekend), but these past two weeks were our - now seemingly regular - holiday to close off the summer, including a trip to Greece, and a 4 hour delay followed by a return trip through a nasty storm on our way back home.

Anyway, after making some resin galleys (see previous post) I quickly got distracted, and as I've had these two hulls lying around, I decided to do some work on them for my 1/1000 scale Trashy Fleets project.

On the left is the assembled coastal defence ship HSwMS Äran, a utilitarian Swedish Navy vessel. I like these ships a lot, as they pack quite a punch compared to their size. She and the rest of her class would supposedly play a part in an upcoming Zinqaguri-Nordsburian naval conflict set in my imagi-world in the future.

On the right is proof that I sort of managed to master creating tumblehome hulls using balsa wood, the French pre-dreadnought Charles Martel, with its main hull complete and secondary (tertiary?) turrets attached. The four larger turrets are in the making - the two main ones are complete and await attachment, pictured right next to the hull. 

I mainly used balsa wood, plastic rods and spare 1/700 bits (like the secondary battery of a Kongo class for the Äran and main barrels of a USS Arizona for the Charles Martel) to get this far. The turrets on the Charles Martel are rods of magic sculpt kneaded to shape, then sanded, as the fibers in the balsa wood would be just too rough for such intricate work. Just as with my previous pre-dreadnought, I'm going to build bases for these ships as well.

Trashy Fleets - 1/1000 Royal Navy pre-dreadnought

By popular demand (that is, the Mad Padre has mentioned in the previous post that he would like to see some ships), here is the first Trashy battleship.

Now I cheated with this one a little, as the hull was completed some time ago, I just added touch-ups and the base. The model is roughly 1/1000 scale, so about 10cm/4" long, with emphasis on the proportions and general features.

This ship represents the epitome of RN pre-dreadnoughts (not counting the Lord Nelsons), with two pairs of 12" guns in hooded barbettes, and funnels abeam of each other. The ship's got no name yet, as most likely she will not be part of a historical representation of the Royal Navy.

Trashy Fleets - The Trashy Fleet Spirit

Here's the motto of the Trashy Fleets Pre-Dreadnought project, explained in detail.

Make It Free

Ordinary household items like cardboard, corkboard, plastic tubes etc. are perfect material for some trashy ship modelling.

One can also use leftovers from model kits for secondary armament, conning towers, railings, masts etc., the possibilities are limitless.

If It's Not Free, Make It Cheap

Junkyards, online trading groups and flea markets are the favoured hunting ground of the scratchbuilder, and he will use anything and everything he can get for cheap.

Make It Good Lookin'

Of course the above does not exempt one from historical examples such as well-proportioned and functional vessels. Everybody likes trash-bashing, but there should be a standard. Trashy Fleets aren't made up of scale models, but one can keep close.

MNF Bretagne - Complete

So here she is in her final form, a very good-looking battleship with a tragic fate. Building the ship was great fun (except the rigging), but I've suffered with the base for a countless time, and finally ditched the 3D sea effect for something more simple. This way one can concentrate on the features of the ship.

MNF Bretagne WIP #5

This is the current status of the Bretagne, the ship is complete by my standards, and the suffering with the base continues. 

I have finished her paintjob a while back, but when I turned to rigging, I found that the matte varnish had raised some surfaces and I was not really happy with the bright grey colour, so I did another few layers on the sooty/black surfaces, the bridge platforms and the hull. 

The rigging is quite simplistic, but I could just not bear the sight of bare masts at this relatively large scale (at least compared to 1/2000 which is my standard scale for wargaming models).

The deck is a dark teak, on period photos the contrast with the bright grey hull is very visible. I also had to re-do the rangefinder on the second turret, and some barrels on the secondary battery.

I've restarted the sea base three times until I came to an adequate solution, this is hard foamboard, where the ship's bottom was cut, then filled out, so the waves end where the hull begins. This is a really frustrating part and I should read more about more proper ways around it.

I've also finished Nagato and Mutsu in 1/2000, so stay tuned for their debut, and most probably I'll do the Amagis and Tosas in the near future... problem is I'm running out of storage space for my ships!

MNF Bretagne WIP #4

Continuing with the superstructure, I've added the rails (made from cardstock or something similar I've found lying around) and the dissected tripod mast. You can see the final version of the gun director platform as well.

This is how she looks mostly assembled, sans boats and turrets.

MNF Bretagne WIP #3

Here are the five turrets, eight secondary mounts and six boats glued to sticks for easier painting. The hull is more or less complete, with the rear mast and the stacks installed. I found that the section behind the second funnel is not actually the continuation of the deck, but a two-storey boat bay, this will be simulated by shading the lower areas and letting half a boat show below the upper tier.

MNF Bretagne WIP #2

Since the last time, I've completed the turrets, with the second one having a range finder as well. I'll paint these separately to the dark grey colour visible on period photos. The barrels are from oars on a Revell Spanish Galeon, at their end there is a tiny piece suitable for a blast bag.

I've continued shaping the hull as well, adding the third tier of deck and turret rings. The bow is more or less complete, and the details for the secondary battery have been carved out, this needs a bit more sanding. I'll add the cabin windows when the painting is done, with a punch, something like a pinhead dipped in black paint. Once the stacks are complete and the secondary gun barrels are drilled and glued in, I can move on to the superstructure.

A Change in Plans - MNF Bretagne WIP #1

In my previous post I have talked about the idea of making the Bretagne in 1/1200 and 1/1340 scale, one for a desert diorama and one for a ship-in-a-bottle. Well I found out that I did not have the patience or the skill to make a scale drawing out of a digital blueprint, nor access to any safe printing services right now, but recalled that I had an 1/1000 scale version ready to go. So I'm going to be making a single 1/1000 waterline diorama with her. 

The plans I have are for Lorraine post-1935, the one with the 3rd turret removed, but it should be quite easy to use the prints I have on the other two members of the class to substitute a fifth, same-sized turret.

The main hull was cut out from a 5mm and 2mm piece of balsa. I sanded them down to shape, then used PVA and clamps to fix the upper hull in place. I used wood filler and the back of a knife blade to add detail to the lower deck. I had some trouble with the shaping and assembly sequence because of the concave shape of the bow: if I add the thinner top section too early, it could result in the protruding part above the 1st secondary casemate gun to be trimmed off, and if I add it too late, it would be increasingly difficult to shape the bow properly. So I did a little of both, and now we shall see.

I don't want to over-rush this project, because I don't really know how reliable house ordering supplies like these are.