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.

Steel Fist Knights and some Old Friends

A while back I ordered eight lance-armed knights from Steel Fist - a rather hefty amount of white metal if you ask me! 

I finally got to finish the first unit - the basing is for my own games, in which pikeblocks are on 120x120mm bases and every other troop type on 60x120mm to accommodate the figures well and have enough blank space for mini dioramas.

As the Perrys I finished earlier joined the Imperial side, I chose these to be French men-at-arms, but generally just went with over the top colours and a moderate amount of white armor.

Research on the MNF Bretagne that might be useful for somebody

Some of my readers might have followed the adventures with the 1/1000 scale waterline model of the Bretagne during Spring 2020 on this blog. That model was broken and thrown out to the trash, but the interest remained. The Bretagne-class, just like most dreadnoughts designed before or during WW1 and continuing to serve in WW2, are an interesting topic, and they are probably one of my favourite ships despite their obvious flaws.

Bringing the Balance

Here are the next eight ships in my growing 1/2000 scale fleet. The front row is made up of the Brazilian Minas Geraes-class, which would serve with the Quisobian Royal Navy, and the Dante Alighieri-class, if they can be called that, belonging to the navy of Cartelucia. The rear row consists of the four Courbet-class battleships, which might alternatively be used by Dorrosean or Crontaineville. This greatly enhances the power of the anti-Friegland alliance, but not nearly well enough. 

The construction of these ships was made available by finding a bit of stained 3mm balsa that I repurposed, and some dense corkboard. The ships in the front row were made from this material, and besides some warping when the PVA was applied, and having to coat the hulls in a layer of 80g paper, there was not much difficulty in building them. 

I'm still experimenting with the camera, so please bear with me while I figure it all out.

...And Justice for All

The title is not extremely correct, as these are the six Republique/Liberté-class French pre-dreadnought battleships, accidentally including one that is named Justice, but suits the theme well.

I've used up my last bit of 2mm balsa, so the hull of the ships is made from corrugated cardboard, and covered in paper. The upper half where the superstructure sits is a piece of 1mm balsa. Cardboard is a rather difficult material to sand, so the ships are a bit over-sized, especially at their beam, but this is actually somewhat beneficial: they look like stocky little things, just like they supposed to.

Construction was otherwise problem-free: lately I prefer to show my ships in a state of battle readiness, deck clutter, including boats removed, which eases the building process. 

Once I finished the German battlecruisers, I felt that although in true WW1 terms the Kaiserliche Marine does not really overwhelm the Entente fleets, in my imaginary world there is a huge advantage to the Jackewlinese - Frieglander axis. This is mainly because I made Jackewline proprietor of both the Royal and US Navy ships. It is only reasonable that without proper allies on the continent, Jackewline attempts to out-build her enemies, the Island Kingdoms (IJN) and Veuden (Imperial Russian Navy). 

The tables are turning on the Frieglander side of things though, as they have 'built' all four large battleship classes sans the Bayerns now, which means 17 ships at full fighting capacity, plus the very capable armoured cruiser Blücher and seven battlecruisers. Facing them, the Cartelucian fleet (Italy) counts five dreadnoughts, the Quisobians (Spain and South American countries) another six, four of which are the Espana-class ships of dubious quality, and the Crontaineville fleet (France) can only put five Danton-class pre-dreadnoughts to sea, sixteen ships in total. This should be somewhat remedied by the pre-dreadnought spam which these six ships here are only a forebear of.

Looking for suitable materials to replace balsa, I came across a piece of dense corkboard, and now I'm using it to build the Minas Geraes-class and a pair of Dante Alighieris (I know, there has been only one, but this is why playing with imagi-nations is sometimes better than the real world), to have at least a semblance of fair play between Friegland and her enemies. They should either be followed by the Edgar Quinets or the Italian armored cruisers (Pisa and San Giorgo-classes).

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.

Heller 1/600 La Couronne WIP

Got this old kit for a bargain price. It will be part of the navy of the imaginary Duchy of Armagnac, slightly outdated for the 18th century, but they could be using old equipment.

There were many troubles with it that seem way too obvious for a modeler today. Lots of flash, flimsy and bendy masts, and the middle of the deck section having a large gaping hole along the sides. All of this of course means that some scratch-building and kit-bashing is required.

More 1/2000 musings

The naval-themed posts continue with two classes of ships - first the Austro-Hungarian Radetzky-class semi-dreadnoughts - after building large later-period ships, these seemed very small.

Then all five members of the French Danton-class were completed (this was the only salvageable picture so there's only four of them present) with a slightly different green-grey paint. This class is for funnel lovers only.

And here's a photo of the shipyard, with four members of the Russian Gangut-class dreadnoughts (also very nice looking ships in their early iteration) assembled and placed on painting stands.

Completed Musketeers

These are the Ultima Ratio figures, nice overall quality, the flash was kind of difficult to remove but they painted up nicely. I did the bases a little more later.

Musketeers WIP

These are the Ultima Ratio musketeers. Pretty fine figures if you ask me, but they don't take acrylic paint too well. They need at least two layers of varnish before basing them. I think I'll visit my favourite railroad modeling shop and get some fancy tufts as well.

Stink Bug Invasion

Just a quick post before I head off for a weekend trip, springtime is here and so are the nasty stink bugs that get through every obstacle and make Central European people's lives miserable...

When I opened up the box full of swag from Drum&Flag (a very friendly online retailer if you are interested in 1/72 bits like I am), I was quite surprised. I ordered one box of used HäT Renault FT-17s, which should have contained two tanks according to PSR, but there were four instead. I got them for the hefty sum of £3.50. In this dark olive green state of theirs they remind me of the dumb little stink bugs that crawl around aimlessly. And their speed also matches.

I had to use sprue rubble melted down in paint thinner for glue, as I ran out of superglue and of course completely forgot to refill. But still, here they are, holding up quite well. 

Finished Saint Chamond & a Mk IV Male

Here's more World War One AFVs for the centenary, my finished scratchbuilt Saint Chamond and the venerable old Airfix 1/76 model without the steering on its butt end, because I lost the rear plate and could not be bothered. 

As most of you know I like my tanks banged up and grimy so these two are no exceptions.

That's not a surrender flag, just a tarp, before anyone gets angry. Cool camo on both of them, and an anti-grenade wire made from mosquito net on the MkIV. I know it's supposed to go over the tracks, but I made it mostly from memory and did not check enough period photos.

I hope these shall participate in a battle soon.

WIP - Char Saint Chamond

Nobody makes these in 1/72 (at least not for a non-stellar price), so I fashioned one from scratch. This is the earlier flat-top version. The hull is 2mm and 5mm balsa wood, there's some bamboo sticks, plasticard etc. involved, and the track is from a toy Sherman that's been shortened and the forward half turned upside down, with the plasticard cover it gives an OK impression.