Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Andy in Germany on May 18, 2024, 09:22:35 AM
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I'm (rather slowly) building up a stock of buildings and props for 28mm Skirmish games, mostly based around the 1920's/30s and using "Pulp Alley" rules or similar.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024_03_10_jewelled_tome_14.jpg)
I tend to use card in bulk quantities, and "found" or "Strategically relocated" bits and pieces...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/monowheel_52.jpg)
This is partly because for work related reasons, I spend weekdays in a tiny apartment near Freiburg, some 200km away from the family in Stuttgart. As a result the modelmaking bench needs to be fairly small and uncomplicated.
Recently Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) were enthusiastically digging up the railway line between these cities, leaving my stranded. In search of a quick project I dug up a rather battered "models of Yesteryear" Rolls Royce for an upcoming project with the Elder Son...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024_04_12_rolls_01-1.jpg)
After some use of a powered drill on the rivets, this fell apart...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024_04_12_rolls_03.jpg)
...and a fter a fair amount of indecision and a few disasters I'll gloss over here, I finally panted it in a less respectable style:
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024_04_12_rolls_05.jpg)
Most of my tabletop games are set in 1937 on the Island of Ascension, in a slightly different timeline from our own, so this car will have certainly seen better days, hence the moderately heavy weathering.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024_04_12_rolls_07.jpg)
There will be some further modificaitons added, but that's good for now. I can use it on the table and get on with the next project on the list. A few years back I built a "control tower" for the airfield;
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/control_tower_22.jpg)
And I think it's high time this was joined by an aeroplane...
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Very nice. Love the seating on the car.
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The control tower looks great.
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And I think it's high time this was joined by an aeroplane...
Nah!
Just lay lots of cotton wool out & say it's too foggy. lol lol lol
Great work by the way.
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Thanks for the comments...
Nah!
Just lay lots of cotton wool out & say it's too foggy. lol lol lol
Great work by the way.
Thanks.
I've wanted to try and make a plane from card since I saw the one built by @tin shed gamer a few years back, so it's on the "to do" list.
The control tower looks great.
Thanks. It's one of the most fun in a game because it has an interior so I can use it for all kinds of stories.
Very nice. Love the seating on the car.
It's been described as "Bordello Crimson" elsewhere...
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Time to get on and actually build the plane...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/biplane_09.jpg)
I decided first to make a fairly freelance model just to try out some methods. For example, to see if it’s really possible to make something that is mostly curves out of flat material like card.
It turns out that with lots of sanding, filler, more sanding, enough superglue to disable a small battleship, shellac and more sanding, it is possible to make a basic form that looks passable, although I’m sure anyone who actually knows anything about designing aeroplanes is either laughing or throwing things at the screen, and it has to be said I’d have taken a lot less time if I hadn’t gone and added all those awkward angles in the fuselage which, of course, also needed sanding.
I now need to figure out how to build something that looks like an engine out of card, and also the whole complicated mix that is the undercarriage. Now, I could also make that part static; many people advocate making a base for the model to sit on so it won’t get damaged easily, but I want to have the plane as a freestanding model. In fact, I’d really like to make the wheels turnable.
This is of course to see if it can be done and is absolutely not so that I can push it along the board during tabletop games making “whoosh whoosh” noises…
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That’ll fly….
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Well, I'm liking it so far. :)
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Very cool and you have sooo much patience. I would have thrown my hands up early on.
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That looks awesome! 8)
Especially the first picture immediately brought me back to playing the Mafia! PC-game back in the early 2K's. The sandbox world in that game is fantastic, and all twenties art-deco buildings.
A wonderful project; I'll be watching this with much interest :)
+++EDIT+++ Also; the plane you're building is reminding me heavily of the de Havilland Dragon Rapide, a plane I used in my pulp RPG games years ago :)
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biplane_15.jpg)
The Biplane of indeterminate heritage has been getting all kinds of details in an attempt to make it look more like a miniature flying machine and less like a collection of pulped wood products.
I wanted a rugged looking transport plane, that could reasonably be imagined to carry about five people, plus additional luggage. It’s probably obvious by now that my entire knowledge of aeroplane design is that it’s considered important to include wings, so to try and make a convincing form I’d collected pictures of 1930s era aircraft and made a sketch based on features I liked.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biplane_13.jpg)
The result has settled down as the fuselage reminiscent of an Anotov AN2 transport plane with wings based on a Fiat Aviazone Cr42 Falco. This is a somewhat unlikely combination given that the Anotov was a Soviet design* while the Fiat was created in Mussolini’s Italy and first flown in support of the nationalists in the Spanish Civil war.
However, in my alternative history with a shortened World War 1, it’s possible the Russian Revolution ended with the abdication of the Tsar, and an independent Ukraine back in the 1930s. Meanwhile, without a war in 1918 the British Secret Service wouldn’t have funded Mussolini and given him his start in politics.
I rather like the idea that instead of competing on the battlefield, aircraft designers would have been attending large air shows to show off their concepts, and late one night in a bar during one such event, a designer from Anotov turned to a designer from Fiat and said “You know, we really should work together sometime…”
*And built in 1947, I know; shush.
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Oh my goodness.
As someone who glues cardboard together at times I'm in awe of the level of your work.
Thanks for sharing.
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Very impressive! :o
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You should be very happy with that Andy! Nice work.
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Good job.
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Like I said before “that’ll fly”.
Lovely bit of work, you should be proud of.
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Andy that looks awesome, the panel lines and fasteners look great, it looks very plausible, nice work!
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Yes; it's more of an AN-2 now; great job! 8)
Where did you get the acrylic disk for the propellor? I need a few myself, and materials are either too thin (sagging) or too thick (heavy); this looks like a good middle ground...
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Thanks for all the kind comments. I'm a bit busy right now, dealing with a future job change and house move. However, some model making is taking place:
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biplane_29.jpg)
Ascension Aerodrome is home to half a dozen or so small companies using aeroplanes* for charter services and hire. Sigma Airlines works out of a small shed at the unfashionable end of the aerodrome and will happily transport anything you need to any number of destinations, discretion guaranteed, no questions asked.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biplane_25.jpg)
G-SIAC is a fairly typical example of their fleet, held together by wire and happy thoughts. Biplanes are already considered a bit obsolete by 1937, but with their solid fixed undercarriage and slow takeoff speeds they’re very useful for flying out of small runways, fields and convenient roads in the middle of nowhere, and well away from pesky civil authorities.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biplane_26-1.jpg)
Naturally this is all very helpful to our heroes and villains, and G-SIAC will no doubt be called upon to transport all kinds of ‘high value items’, and probably people, in and out of Ascension, leading to shenanigans as different groups try to assist or prevent this…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/biplane_27-1.jpg)
*Okay, probably airships as well. It’s on my ‘to do’ list, honest…
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Yes; it's more of an AN-2 now; great job! 8)
Where did you get the acrylic disk for the propellor? I need a few myself, and materials are either too thin (sagging) or too thick (heavy); this looks like a good middle ground...
Thanks...
The discs are 50mm diameter, and 3mm thick. I got the discs from a supplier here in Germany, so I don't know if they still deliver to the UK. The link is here:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/334409662337
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Airships? From card?
Yes please.
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Airships?! Ooh yes, another vote for Card stock zeppelins please. >:D
The more breakfast cereal boxes, sticky fingers and life decision questioning during the process the better!
How good does that little plane look. The prop turned out wonderful, it looks just perfect for your needs. 8)
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The plane is outstanding!! Airships would be spectacular! Good luck with the new job and house.
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Another vote for an airship ;)
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I really shouldn't have mentioned that...
I've got a house move coming up, so it'll have to wait a bit, but I'll build one eventually, honest.
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I've got a house move coming up, so it'll have to wait a bit, but I'll build one eventually, honest.
Sooooo in three weeks we can expect that you will have a scale model of the Hindenburg built?? lol lol
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I'm not sure if I can find an apartment that big...
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/power_station_23.jpg?w=750)
Life is a bit busy at the moment, so this week I worked on a “rainy day” project, namely finishing the interior of the power station belonging to the “Ascension Island Tramway, Electric Power and Vacuum Evacuating Toilet Company Limited”.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/power_station_26.jpg?w=800)
The model has been unpainted for some time, except for a rather half-hearted dark grey base coat. The idea behind this was that it would at least unify the colours, and I suppose you could argue that it was successful because once finished I couldn’t see anything at all.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/power_station_28.jpg?w=800)
This is now finally sorted and looks passably convincing to my eye, although I’m sure it would make an engineer wince.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/power_station_29.jpg?w=800)
The already myriad dangers of life on Ascension Island have been increased with a boiler on the cusp of exploding, a control panel naturally showing lots of dials in the danger zone, and of course the ultimate in undefined potential destruction: the Big Red Lever.
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No…..don’t throw the red lever !
Great work, as normal.
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Outstanding as always.
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That looks superb!
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That’s brilliant, I love it. Are you prepared to speculate on the effects on the customers of the Vacuum Evacuating Toilet division of the company in the event of a boiler explosion?
Doug
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Really nice scratch-built pieces. Steampunky in a way (the last one).
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Many thanks for the encouraging comments.
...Are you prepared to speculate on the effects on the customers of the Vacuum Evacuating Toilet division of the company in the event of a boiler explosion?
Doug
I hope that even on Ascension, the Central Collection Depot will be kept well away from pretty much anyone (apart from the smell, think of the methane build-up). However...
Really nice scratch-built pieces. Steampunky in a way (the last one).
Thanks for that: I wanted to take things in a steampunk direction.
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That airplane is glorious, the 1920s and 1930s were enough of a random, janky, experimental time in aviation that a weirdly angular rivet-festooned sesquiplane* fits right in.
The coal power plant/mad scientist's lair is also excellent and inspired.
* sesquiplane is an entirely real word, "A biplane having one long wing and one short one above or below it."
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Thanks, @wirelizard.
This week I forced myself to finally make the interior of the Casino.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_01_11_casino_20.jpg)
"Forced" I appreciate is a relative term, but I hadn't been enthusiastic because I’ve never been inside such an establishment and don't really want to. As such I had to resort to a lot of online research, which is how I learned that there are more casinos in Las Vegas that the whole of Germany; how the odds in casinos are so carefully set to make sure that ultimately the house always wins, and the longer customers play, the higher their chance of losing, how casinos have no windows or clocks, so players lose track of time, and how casinos will ply successful players with ‘free’ alcohol to reduce their decision-making capabilities. Nothing is left to chance.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_01_11_casino_22.jpg)
I have to admit, all this made me wonder why anyone would enter one of these places. In fact, it made me even less enthusiastic, which is why the interior looks a little ‘basic’. I may come back and add details at some point if this annoys me, but for now I want to do something else.
Of course behind the glitz, the Georgetown Casino is all this dialled up to ’11’ and a wealthy inebriated gambler will be lucky to wake up the next day still in possession of their cash, and indeed their wallet; ticket home; clothes; and possibly the deeds to their property.
Despite this, as usual, the management probably won’t have it all their own way; many people have strategies to beat the house, and of course, there are always some people who will take a more ‘direct’ approach to wealth accumulation…
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I've only been in a casino once, on a riverboat in St Louis. The group I was with saw it as a tourist experience, with the (small) stakes we had brought as the equivalent of a ticket price.
We agreed that anyone who won would pay for the drinks. I ended up ahead by less than $2, and let me tell you, the drinks were NOT free that night!
Anyway, nice modelling. They may be sparse, but the tables look right.
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This week has been busy; I'm changing job and apartment and these things are wont to take a silly amount of time and energy.
However, the Aerodrome at Ascension needed a wind sock:
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_30_windsock_04.jpg?w=400)
Beiung thoroughly indecisive, I've put a lits of potential future projects on my blog with a descripotion of each and an option to vote on them. If you'd like to join in follow this link:
https://korschtal.wordpress.com/2024/06/29/to-do-list/ (https://korschtal.wordpress.com/2024/06/29/to-do-list/)
Another gratuitous picture of the windsock in place with Sigma Airlines' biplane in the background...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_30_windsock_03.jpg?w=500)
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I've only been in a casino once, on a riverboat in St Louis. The group I was with saw it as a tourist experience, with the (small) stakes we had brought as the equivalent of a ticket price.
We agreed that anyone who won would pay for the drinks. I ended up ahead by less than $2, and let me tell you, the drinks were NOT free that night!
Anyway, nice modelling. They may be sparse, but the tables look right.
Sounds about right; even if you win, you loose. I seem to recall the riverboats were originally to get around gambling laws.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_20_max_01c.jpg?w=800)
I told you things would get sillier, and behold, they have…
The Great Depression may be in full swing, but for the extremely wealthy it is no more than background noise, a topic of conversation alongside Jacosta’s new outfit or Ronald’s sleepover with the Prince of Wales. But this class has found a new problem; boredom. Attending parties and buying thousand dollar dresses is all very well, but it eventually becomes stale, and thus began a new craze for the thrill seeking elites.
The First of “the races” was probably held in 1934 on a patch of waste ground outside London. Despite being illegal, it spread rapidly, especially as the participants had the finances to travel across Europe and to the USA, with their souped up machines.
The first incident of drivers shooting at each other was, of course, in the USA, but soon the already highly dangerous vehicles were being fitted out with everything from machine guns to the newfangled rocket launchers; others added hoppers for oil and caltrops to give anyone following a very nasty surprise indeed.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_20_max_01a.jpg?w=800)
As Ascension is now a major crossroads for the rich and famous, it was only a matter of time before the circus came to town. “The Races” are of course illegal, but the local police force have been instructed, from very high up, not to interfere.
Mind you, Captain Bryant has probably decided that with general crime, smuggling, trafficking, vice, counterfeiting, and a civil war brewing back in the UK, his small team have quite enough to deal with. If some rich idiots want to try and shoot each other, that’s their problem.
With luck, they may even succeed.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_20_max_01.jpg?w=800)
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Being an American, the only silly thing I see is you've gone and put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car! :o lol
Much coolness in this thread.
Casinos: my wife, from the Philippines, has some family members that seem to 'live' in local casinos - far too many in California, Native American land so skirting the state laws. So, when she said she wanted to visit the very first such Indian casino (near us), I told her you tell me how much you are willing to lose and then we'll go. Oh, she didn't like that - bad vibes, negative waves. Stuck to my guns, hard. She finally gave an amount that was 'affordable' and off we went and when that amount was gone we left - and never bothered to go back. Smoke filled and foul smelling places. I limit my gambling to lottery tickets, no more than a few bucks at a time. Still mostly lose but if ever hit it big, the payoff can be enormous. Oh, and that first casino cleared a half billion dollars its first six months. We only contributed a minute fraction of that amount. ;)
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AMAZING modeling work on this thread, Andy in Germany!!!
So happy I found it as I don't think I'd seen any of your creations before now. As others have said above, I look forward to seeing more of this project as it grows! Also I must say the idea of a 1937 version of "CAR WARS" sounds super cool to me. I'm not a big pulp or historical RPG gamer, so I wouldn't necessarily know if such a thing already exists as a commercially available, "game world," but it sounds very original to me.
RE: casinos... I feel compelled to contribute an anecdote. I apologize in advance for it being too long and potentially distracting from your brilliant modeling work, BUT your personal take on casinos leads me to think you may appreciate it...
When our middle child who is also our older daughter played youth basketball, her "Club" team attended a prominent South-Western regional tournament in Las Vegas. The host organization laid down flooring, rolled in hoops & scoreboards and turned the largest banquet hall at the Casino Hotel in question into an indoor arena filled with dozens of full-size basketball courts.
Like every team attending, our entire team of 12 to 14 years old girls and their families was required to stay at the host hotel. In keeping with Rule #1 of hotel casino design, the only way to get from our rooms to the banquet hall where all the games were played was by WALKING STRAIGHT THROUGH THE CASINO FLOOR.
Of course it's illegal for anyone under age 21 to step foot on a casino floor in Las Vegas -- but the hotel had booked HUNDREDS OF YOUTH BASKETBALL PLAYERS for the weekend. Hey, each girl was accompanied by at least one adult who might end up having a great time in a more traditional casino "gaming" sense!
I remember being caught between anger and laughter. Escorting a bunch of the girls through the Casino floor filled with scantily clad cocktail waitresses and degenerates of every type in order to reach the courts was infuriating -- but it was also absurd to the point of almost being surreal.
After our first trek through the cigarette smoke and alcohol infused atmosphere I found a better route from the elevator bank to the banquet hall that hugged the outer walls and only required a very short sprint across a short section of the casino floor. That became the go-to route for our entire team for the rest of the weekend. It took a little longer but was worth it to avoid some of the stuff otherwise on view up close and personal.
My daughter, who has since grown up and become an army officer, remembers that Tournament -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- with a special fondness.
"Circling back" to your fantastic modeling work... maybe there's a plot-thread for a game involving a youth being stuck in your casino and having to be rescued or rescue themselves.
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Being an American, the only silly thing I see is you've gone and put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car!
Given that I've lived in Germany for 25 years, and even learned to drive here, you'd think I'd have noticed that. I guess my childhood in the UK went deeper than I thought...
AMAZING modeling work on this thread, Andy in Germany!!!
So happy I found it as I don't think I'd seen any of your creations before now. As others have said above, I look forward to seeing more of this project as it grows! Also I must say the idea of a 1937 version of "CAR WARS" sounds super cool to me. I'm not a big pulp or historical RPG gamer, so I wouldn't necessarily know if such a thing already exists as a commercially available, "game world," but it sounds very original to me.
Hi, and many thanks. I can't take any credit for the original idea though: it's based on the wonderfully bonkers rules for "Maximilian 1934" from Mana press; I just changed the background story to fit into my story arc which is based on an alternative Ascension Island that found itself an international crossroads in the British Empire.
And I like the Casino anecdote as well: that certainly wouldn't happen here in Germany...
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/max_van_04.jpg?w=500)
When I was a child, one of my bugbears with toy cars was the lack of detail on the underside, so if a car was turned over, instead of a vaguely realistic chassis, you got a flat plate with “Matchbox” written across it. It used to annoy me no end.
I was that kind of child.
Naturally, now I’m making a card model of a vehicle, I wanted to make it like the real thing with a chassis and undergubbins to show in the inevitable event of it crashing…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/max_van_01.jpg?w=500)
…this then got out of hand and I ended up building a complete chassis from card and bits of scraps. As usual, I worked from pictures and made extremely rough copies of what I saw, adding various round bits and lumpy bits as I felt like it, entirely unhindered by any understanding of motor vehicles, mechanics or even physics.
This is as near as I get to “scale model making”.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/max_van_02s.jpg?w=500)
However, in one case of very nearly engineering, if you squint, this chassis does genuinely roll; the wheels do turn, generally in the same direction. It took a certain amount of swearing to achieve this, not to mention a complete rebuild of one end after I glued the axles solid, but we’ll gloss over that.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/max_van_06s.jpg?w=500)
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Very impressive Andy. Were your parents frightened of you as a child? lol lol
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Now that is impressive. Bravo.
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You are far better than I at this. I have been known to just apply
a thick paste to the underside to cover the makers name. :D
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Thanks for the comments...
Were your parents frightened of you as a child? lol lol
I was certainly left to my own devices a lot, being an introverted only child probably contributed...
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024_07_15_van_2_01s.jpg?w=500)
Having spent several days gluing my fingers together trying to build a fiddly chassis, I naturally decided to do it all again.
This was partly because I wanted to learn from the mistakes experiences from the first model and at least pretend I’d improved before I forgot everything, but it was also because I like two of the designs I’d sketched, and I’m sufficiently inept at making decisions that I couldn’t choose which one to build…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2024_07_15_van_2_02s.jpg?w=500)
The second chassis is a little smoother, or possibly just ‘less wobbly’, and will at least look realistic when the van tips over. Any other issues will be resolved by weathering, because weathering solves everything.
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Great stuff as usual.
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Well, I'm just going to have to invent a word here: that is "nutterastic" (nutter + fantastic). Crazy need to model something, mostly, never seen, but done in a fantastic manner.
Now we all just get to be inpatient waiting to see what goes on top of those two chasis. ;)
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/max_van_07.jpg?w=600)
After the success of the plane out of card project I’d wanted to try something even more extreme, so once I’d roughly formed a truck body that actually fitted on the chassis while allowing the wheels to go round, I got out some very coarse grade sandpaper, and sanded the ‘model’ to death, with the goal of making a vehicle that looked rounded and stylish.
Of course, when you just have a curved shape with no context and no detail, what you get is something that looks like a bar of used soap, so before posting I added some details from wire and bits of card to try and make a vaguely authentic “truck” that can hold its own during a tabletop game.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/max_van_09.jpg?w=600)
Some details will be held on with magnets, so the truck can fulfil its alter ego as a racing vehicle in “The Races”. This will require a turret (yes, really) and hopefully a ramming plough. The cunning plan to magnet this onto the ‘radiator’ worked up until the point where I realised the mesh I’d used was aluminium, but I’ll figure out a solution at some point…
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Great thread :)
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024_08_17_checkpoints_01.jpg?w=500)
I'm currently moving house, so I'm focused on smaller projects. This one is a set of markers for “Maximilian 1934” games, ready for the day I have a table again…
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I like the truck. :)
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/max_van_27.jpg?w=500)
This would have been finished a week ago if I was more decisive; I rejected several colours before settling on dark red, and it turns out that card doesn’t like to have paint removed in the usual way, so it took much careful scraping to get the surface ready for painting again.
Anyway…
The van has several different identities depending on which magnetised sign I put on the side. Currently, it belongs to one Charles Vane.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/max_van_30.jpg?w=500)
If anyone asks at a society event, Charles Vane will describe himself either as an “Entrepreneur” or a “Gentleman” while being rather vague about the actual business apart from “import and export”. He’s very quiet about his sideline in the “security” business providing guards for some of the Island’s warehouses, and certainly never mentions the numerous failed ventures, the remains of which are in several places on the Island, some in quite small bits.
None of these failures seem to affect Vane financially or otherwise. He maintains a close relationship with the elites of the Island, from the governor to whoever is ascendant in the local organised crime scene. In fact, it is this ability that gained him his nickname; “Weather Vane”, because you only have to watch him to know which way the wind is blowing. Just don’t ever say this where he can hear you.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/max_van_29.jpg?w=500)
There’s a persistent rumour that Vane is from an aristocratic English family who pay him a stipend to stay out of the way on Ascension. Captain Bryant is fairly sure he also supplements his income from various illegal activities, from smuggling to protection rackets, but the police have been told that an investigation would be “unnecessary”.
The van will at some point gain a couple of other identities, probably as the Island’s Post Office van. It will also lead a double life as a combatant in “the Races” under the “Maximilian 1934” rules. For this, of course, it will need a few customisations…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/max_van_15.jpg?w=300)
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The truck turned out very nicely and I like the back story!
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For this, of course, it will need a few customisations…
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor bandits nor spies stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds...
(Sorry hate this editor)
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024_07_15_van_2_05-2.jpg?w=500)
On to Van 2.0.
This van was supposed to look a bit newer than the previous version, as if some organisation wanted to improve their image, so they got a chic and trendy style of van. I also wanted to try a few different methods, and while I was at it, practice a few things I’d learned before I forgot about them.
With my memory, this doesn’t usually take very long.
Incidentally, before someone comments, I know there’s no door for the driver. I originally planned to make one by sticking card onto the side in the same way as the first van, but I realised this would break up those raised lines, so I’ll draw and score the outline instead. I did this on the plane and no-one seems to have noticed.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024_07_15_van_2_06.jpg?w=500)
Once I’ve decided what colour to paint it, hopefully without half a dozen false starts this time, it’s time for the silly session once more, with some ridiculous weaponry. I’m wondering if this could be another faction, a “Revolutionary People’s Front” to counter the previous “People’s Revolutionary Front”.
On the other hand, this is the 1930’s, someone from the other extreme of the political spectrum may have seen the excuse for some randomised violence…
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‘Randomised violence has no excuse. Organised violence needs none’.
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These vans are great. The second one looks as though it could have been designed by Sir Nigel Gresley.
Doug
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These vans are great. The second one looks as though it could have been designed by Sir Nigel Gresley.
Doug
Thank you. The "additions" for the Maximilian rules will probably ruin this effect...
‘Randomised violence has no excuse. Organised violence needs none’.
That may well become the motto for the "Auxiliary" Police...
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Duplicate post
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/max_van_43.jpg?w=500)
And so the silliness descends, with help from some more card, bits of wire and collected junk, and the innards from several cigarette lighters*.
In this guise, the van is being driven in “the races” by the Ascension Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party, which broke away from the “Ascension Socialist Workers Party” due to “ideological differences”; Publicly, this is because they advocated violent revolution and blowing up the Governor’s residence. In fact, it’s because the only thing they actually blew up was the shed the Ascension Socialist Workers Party had rented as a headquarters.
The “Ascension Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party” originally used the van outside factories, exhorting the workers to revolution through their loudspeaker. It also serves as a meeting room for the revolutionaries, because the membership has never risen above two.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/max_van_40.jpg?w=400)
With the advent of “The Races” the ARSWP saw their big chance; they made a ram and turret out of scrap, found a couple of machine guns from somewhere, and announced they were going to “Bring the fight to the complacent elites”. They kept the megaphone, and during races the sound of motor vehicles is intermingled with the occasional snippets of Marxist doctrine.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/max_van_38.jpg?w=350)
They did hint that they might use the van to make another attempt on the governor’s residence, but Captain Bryant, and possibly more importantly, Sgt Williams of the Royal Navy Air Service Police pointed out the likely consequences of such tomfoolery, and the idea was quietly dropped…
*My clients collectively burn the tobacco output of a small South American country every week, so I have a ready supply of used lighters…
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Posted by mistake due to computer illiteracy...
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024_07_15_van_2_50.jpg?w=500)
Apparently this style of design is called “Streamline Moderne”, which according to the Internet, fount of all knowledge, is characterised by “curving forms and long horizontal lines” which were popular in the 1930’s to “give an impression of sleekness and modernity”. Possibly a little out of place on an island where an indoor toilet is a rarity, but there we go.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024_07_15_van_2_53.jpg?w=500)
On the other hand, the hotels and entertainment district of Georgetown will be very keen to present an illusion of exactly this sort of modernity, so this will probably become a vehicle for deliveries in places where the wealthy patrons my see it.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024_07_15_van_2_51.jpg?w=500)
I may make a sign for the Auxiliary police as well; it’s about time they had a vehicle to call their own, and of course, there are magnets hidden in a few places to allow extra bits and pieces for it to be used in “the races”; probably also by the Auxiliary Police or a group they’re paying to do their dirty work…
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Me like.
Funny looking toaster, though - no slots for the bread .. .
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Me like.
Funny looking toaster, though - no slots for the bread .. .
"The Flying Toaster" may become the new name now...
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Very nice work. I am always amazed at the organic shapes that you can whip up using card.
"The Flying Toaster"
Keeping with the 30's idea of modern, it should be the "Supersonic Toaster". Atomic Toasters would come later in the 40s-50s. lol
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2024_07_15_van_2_28-2.jpg?w=500)
The Empire Strikes Back...
As reported previously, in the inaugural race on the Island of Ascension, the “Ascension Socialist Revolutionary Party” won against several aristocratic drivers. This was of great concern for the establishment; after all, if the lower orders can get away with this sort of thing, who knows what they may decide to do next?
Keeping the working class in their place is one of the roles under the broad remit of the “Auxiliary Police”*; the rather murky political police force started by Prime Minister Oswald Moseley. However, the idea of what is effectively a government run ministry entering the Races as a competitor and potentially shooting civilians is not -yet- considered politically palatable.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2024_07_15_van_2_29.jpg?w=500)
Instead, the Auxiliaries have quietly funded one of the local organised crime groups to convert a van and enter as an “independent” competitor. They’ve even given them an experimental Gatling gun to test out. The gang also added the rather makeshift “armour” on the front and the equally makeshift oil dispenser to spray oil in the path of following vehicles.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2024_07_15_van_2_27.jpg?w=500)
Of course, one of the problems with making deals with street gangs, is that once out on the track, they may well decide to have a go at some class warfare themselves, so I doubt the races will always develop in the way the Auxiliaries are expecting…
*Officially “Ensuring and maintaining the security of the crown”.
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Having never seen anything quite like that - except as trailers - I went internet hunting and found: https://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/museum-inventory/ (https://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/museum-inventory/). A bit more of the 'sleek' variety than your model but at least I found verification. And I take no responsibility regarding any further inspiration you may get from other items at the link. ;)
And glad you mentioned about the oil spreader because I was thinking to comment that it was a bad idea to have the propane canister in front of the armor like that - spoil cooking dinner later (no idea if such canisters existed in 1930s) and might explode if hit and ignited. (Did a little checking and propane used at 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles - but not necessarily portable)
Cool model - and love the magnet idea, adds so much versatility.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/airship_mast_02.jpg?w=375)
I’ve established that it’s possible to make rounded models, even quite small rounded models, and also frames, if they are fixed to a solid base, but this time I wanted to investigate open girder construction.
Having made a vague shape that didn’t look like it was going to warp when I turned my back, I hit a new problem, namely rivets. On previous models, I’d drilled lots of holes in the bodywork and inserted pins in them. This worked well enough on the ‘steam powered’ tank, even if the inside looked slightly terrifying.
Unfortunately, on an open frame this wouldn’t work, so after asking here and elsewhere, I tried nail art rhinestones.
This worked well, and as an added advantage was a bit quicker than drilling holes for every rivet, it just came out a bit blingy, like a steampunk contraption built by Gucci. Still, it meant I was motivated to prime the model, and quickly…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/airship_mast_03.jpg?w=500)
Much better...
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What with the new job and catching a very badly timed bout of 'flu, I've not progressed much. However...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/airship_mast_07.jpg?W=500)
The next job on the current project was a base for the model to go on. This should be simple enough; a square of laminated card, paint, cover, add a bit of detail; job’s a good ‘un.
Now, I know that card likes to warp, so before doing anything else I added a couple of coats of shellac, aka French polish, which on other card models made them much more stable. However, it probably didn’t help that I used watered down glue for the first layer of ground cover. Or that I then messed this up and had to repeat it. By the time I’d finished, the result looked like a damp towel.
But was it bad enough that I needed to repeat the model? I wrestled with my inner perfectionist. My inner perfectionist won.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/airship_mast_06.jpg?w=500)
I built the second base more slowly, pressing each stage for 24 hours when it had dried. I used neat glue for the ground cover, and then flattened it again. After a week of this, and painting the base, I added grass… and it warped again. Just a bit, but enough that there’s a crack under the kerbstones.
I reckon I can fix this, though; I’ve got a plan…
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/airship_mast_10-1.jpg)
Well, it turns out that making a model from lots of tiny pieces of card and then insisting on adding rivets to every possible join takes a bit of time. However, the base section of the Zeppelin Tower is finally structurally complete.
To my frank astonishment, the structure is also pretty solid. Those chaps who designed the originals for these clearly knew their stuff.
To my equal astonishment, the cunning plan to straighten the base out worked too.
This is a trick taken from cabinet making for using veneers: if you glue a layer of veneer to a piece of plywood, it will warp, as wood likes to do. To avoid bendy furniture, the solution is to add another piece of veneer on the other side to cancel out the warping.
In my case, after all the surface detailing had dried off, I glued paper on the underside of the base and let it dry overnight under a couple of books. The next morning, voilà: flat base.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/airship_mast_11-1.jpg)
Anyway, this is based on the only remaining tower of its kind in Recife, Brazil, which in the very short heyday of airships was the first stopping point for airships to South America from Europe and which would have hosted giants like the Graf Zepellin and the Hindenburg before the twit with the bad moustache came along. Of course, in my alternative history, 1930’s Germany is a loose federation of tiny states once more, and airships are the way to travel across oceans, so these towers are a regular sight around the world.
Ascension is developing rapidly as a junction for many airship routes, so in reality it would probably have several airship masts, but don’t ask me to make them all…
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That is a great looking structure - well done.
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Very, Very nice work.
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Very nice indeed!
Yes, when PVA dries, it contracts and can cause warping. PVA on the opposite side indeed counter-acts this. For some flocking applications on scatter terrain, this technological trick is a handy cure too.
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That is a great looking structure - well done.
Very, Very nice work.
Very nice indeed!
Yes, when PVA dries, it contracts and can cause warping. PVA on the opposite side indeed counter-acts this. For some flocking applications on scatter terrain, this technological trick is a handy cure too.
Many thanks. I was getting a bit fed up with this project; I can of course see a thousand mistakes and problems) so it's good to know that they aren't that obvious to everyone else...
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Very impressive work, even by your standards. This, of course will require the next build of the zeppelin itself.
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that's great - I always assumed there was a lift in the centre of the tower, always wondered how people disembarked using those.
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Very impressive work, even by your standards. This, of course will require the next build of the zeppelin itself.
Many thanks, I've very carefully photographed it, so the wonky bits aren't too obvious...
that's great - I always assumed there was a lift in the centre of the tower, always wondered how people disembarked using those.
Thanks. The British Carrington towers had a lift, but they were much taller.
I think (and this is guesswork based on the design) this tower would extend to make docking easier, then lower for another mobile tower to anchor the rear of the Airship. Then passengers could disembark from the gondola at ground level.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/airship_mast_13.jpg)
Getting there slowly. as said above, wonky bits hidden by cunning photographic angles.
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OOh that looks great! The colour and shape remind me of the TinTin space ship's love child with the Eiffel tower! ;D
That will fit in perfectly on Ascenscion Island.
It doesn't look wobbly at all!
Cheers
Matt
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/airship_mast_15-1.jpg)
I think I overdid the weathering on this.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/airship_mast_18.jpg)
Still, it was a good learning process, and the Zeppelin crew have a moderately appropriate model to stand on while they wait for me to get my act together and build at least a small Zeppelin for them to fly.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/airship_mast_19-1.jpg)
In the meantime, it's finished, only slight wonky, and I can clear the model making desk for the new year...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/airship_mast_17.jpg)
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I think it looks great! I actually like the amount of weathering. It looks like it has been in used for several years...
Mike Demana
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Nothing wrong with a bit of ‘wonk’ - adds character, dunnit?
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Nothing wrong with a bit of ‘wonk’ - adds character, dunnit?
Exactly, it was obviously "wonked!" ahem, by a badly docked airship ;) :D
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Many thanks: I'll see how I feel about it after a couple of games.
In the meantime, I'm adding to the Württemberg Zeppelin Crew members (North Star/Pulp)...
(https://www.cyclechat.net/attachments/2025_01_05_zeppelin_crew_01-jpg.757941/)
In the background are two characters from Ascension: Left is "Sir" Charles Vane, "Entrepreneur", gambler and otherwise dodgy dealer of independent means. On the right is Dr Solomon Mckinley, head doctor of the hospital on Ascension (Adapted Reaper Miniatures). I'm trying to work through the backlog of figures this year, so hopefully this will become a regular feature...
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Hoorah!
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A bit more progress:
(https://www.cyclechat.net/attachments/2025_01_07_vane_01-jpg.758202/)
"Sir" Charles Vane. Dry brushing needs toning down.
(https://www.cyclechat.net/attachments/2025_01_07_mckinley_02-jpg.758203/)
And Dr. Solomon McKinley...
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025_01_12_zeppelin_crew_02.jpg)
Life and work has kind of gone up a gear. This is a good thing for a lot of reasons; several opportunities are coming up, and I do enjoy my work.
On the other hand, it’s wearing me out a bit, and after a day of finding solutions to problems, I’m not always motivated to do the same in the evening, so this week I’ve been mostly painting model figures. The Zeppelin crew have been waiting their turn for some time now, and it doesn’t take much longer to paint several figures in the same uniform than it does to paint just one.
That said, it isn’t a quick process and I have a tendency to lose track of time, then suddenly realise it’s rather ridiculously late, and I have to go to work tomorrow…
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Those are Murch's stuff, no? I hear you on the not having enough energy or time. Do what you can do.
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Yes they are; lovely models and slightly addictive to paint.
Thanks for the encouragement. Thing is, I love my family and my work, but I am an introvert, so making and painting is a way to recharge.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_02_limpton_sisters_51.jpg)
I’ve been painting figures again. Meet the Limpton Sisters: Petunia and Aubergine, heirs to the great Limpton Cocoa empire. They are described by the fashion magazines as “society beauties” which is a euphemism.
Less official sources describe the sisters as “Mildly Psychotic”, but as they are keen to explain, they only shoot people who really deserve it, and never in the house: after all, that would leave a mess for the servants to clean up.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_02_limpton_sisters_54.jpg)
Strangely, very few companies cater for those of us making slightly steampunk alternative 1930’s historical tabletop games, so these figures come from a small company based in the UK. I tried a new method of painting as described by someone on here who is much more proficient than I in this area; instead of dry brushing highlights, I only used washes of lighter and darker colour. For some reason, it didn’t seem to work for me, so I’ll go back to the old methods in future. Fortunately, from normal distances they look fine.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_02_limpton_sisters_56.jpg)
I’ve noticed this happens a lot when making things by hand: a method that works for one person could be a complete disaster for the next. This seems to be the case regardless of skill level or experience, so II’ve learned to find what works for me, rather than what is the ‘correct’ method.
So there: a lesson for life, learned from model making.
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Those Bloody Women get everywhere! :-)
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Another totally gorgeous addition to the Ascension Island saga. When you decide you really don’t like that painting style, just send the whole model to me - it’ll fit in my VBCW campaign perfectly. And I’ll pay the postage :D
Where is the original vehicle from? I’m not an expert but I’m guessing it’s a Bentley? I love what you’ve done to it.
Doug
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Another totally gorgeous addition to the Ascension Island saga. When you decide you really don’t like that painting style, just send the whole model to me - it’ll fit in my VBCW campaign perfectly. And I’ll pay the postage :D
Where is the original vehicle from? I’m not an expert but I’m guessing it’s a Bentley? I love what you’ve done to it.
Doug
Thanks, Doug. As I said, it looks okay viewed from a distance. If you squint.
The model is a "1929 Bentley" according to the underside. It came to me as a rather battered "Models of Yesteryear" toy from Ebay, with several parts broken and the back seat missing, as my plan was to make it into a gun platform this hardly mattered, and it meant I wouldn't get nasty emails from model collectors...
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What is collectible this week is next to worthless next week - so never worry about "collectible" value when you have an actual use for something besides storing it in a dark closet in an unopened package. That whole scene is just weird to me. The value is in the use.
Of course, when viewing van Gogh's "Irises", the original, (worth north of 50 million US dollars) I made a quite public comment that it looked a lot like the works of five year olds next door (different display), just a bit more controlled. And that elicited a few gasps and quite a few knowing titters from the quite deep crowd. In the eye of the beholder and all that.
Nice work combining 'the ladies' and the vehicle.
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What is collectible this week is next to worthless next week - so never worry about "collectible" value when you have an actual use for something besides storing it in a dark closet in an unopened package. That whole scene is just weird to me. The value is in the use.
So true. I recently bought a Corgi AEC bus on ebay. It came in perfect condition, in its original display box with a limited edition certificate (#04799 of 10,000 produced). On the back of the certificate was a handwritten note “present from mum, July 1993” and a name I can’t read. I found it quite poignant. And how much did I pay for this beautifully preserved piece? £8.95 including postage.
At least now it should get some use. It’s designated as the platoon transport for the 47th Ad-Hoc Shock Platoon in my VBCW campaign:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=147800.75 (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=147800.75)
Doug
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_01_12_dr_solomon_mckinley_01.jpg)
“Being a member of God’s two chosen people groups can be such a burden.” Dr. Solomon Mckinley.
As we have seen in the last few months, Ascension Island is a dangerous place; quite apart from all the gang warfare, political intrigue, heists, chases, and extortion going on, there’s the danger presented by being on a tiny mountainous scrap of land in the middle of thousands of miles of the Atlantic Ocean, so a hospital was required.
The first hospital on Ascension was built around 1829 when the Island was developed to support the Royal Navy, particularly the West Africa Squadron, which was on the front line of the fight against slavery from 1808–1856. In my world, it was expanded in the 1920’s because of the increased traffic through the Island, with an ugly prefabricated second wing.
A tiny hospital on a tiny island is not a very attractive proposition for aspiring doctors, so after the Royal Navy gave it over to civilian use, probably with a sense of relief, the facility has been “managed” by a fairly long line of incompetent doctors, usually embittered and close to retirement. Then Dr Solomon Mckinley arrived.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_01_12_dr_solomon_mckinley_02.jpg)
Mckinley is a giant of a man, standing at 6’7″, and has a personality to match. Born in Glasgow, he was a consultant doctor in a large hospital in Northern England, but under the government of Oswald Moseley and Edward VIII, being Jewish made him a target of the Auxiliary Police, and he ended up exiled to Ascension. Here, a lifetime’s experience and enthusiasm has been focused on the few wards under his authority and has revolutionised healthcare on the Island; patients now have a good chance of leaving the hospital more healthy than they went in.
He is also a former college heavyweight boxing champion, which several of the more boisterous tourists discovered to their cost when pressing their attentions on the nurses. Captain Bryant’s Royal Navy Police soon discovered that if called to the hospital, they were unlikely to be rescuing the staff…
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What is collectible this week is next to worthless next week - so never worry about "collectible" value when you have an actual use for something besides storing it in a dark closet in an unopened package. That whole scene is just weird to me. The value is in the use.
Of course, when viewing van Gogh's "Irises", the original, (worth north of 50 million US dollars) I made a quite public comment that it looked a lot like the works of five year olds next store (different display), just a bit more controlled. And that elicited a few gasps and quite a few knowing titters from the quite deep crowd. In the eye of the beholder and all that.
Nice work combining 'the ladies' and the vehicle.
I don't really understand the collecting scene either.
On the other hand, as I know I'm going to pull the whole thing to bits, respray it and add all kind of "customisations" I feel marginally less guilty if I start with a battered wreck. Cheaper too...
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On the back of the certificate was a handwritten note “present from mum, July 1993” and a name I can’t read. I found it quite poignant. And how much did I pay for this beautifully preserved piece? £8.95 including postage.
Doug
Poignant indeed. I sometimes wonder what will happen to my models, so I try to keep the amount of items down, and make them relatively easy to dispose of.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_24_jack_osullivan_01.jpg)
Another of the “minor” characters of Ascension this week. Meet Jack O’Sullivan, fifteen, arrived on Ascension six years ago after stowing away on a coal ship.
“Arrived” is a rather genteel term; he was discovered just as the ship had left Liverpool, and was unceremoniously dumped on the quayside in Ascension. Since then, he’s worked as a boot boy, messenger, and now sells newspapers to the wealthier patrons of the Island.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_24_jack_osullivan_02.jpg)
O’Sullivan has a reputation for being first with the news: not only does he have the latest editions of most major papers each morning, he’s also the go-to person for anyone wanting to know what is happening in Ascension’s constantly evolving political and criminal scene; for a price, of course.
O’Sullivan is named after one of the Editors of the “Workers Dreadnought” a long defunct English language newspaper from the early 20th century. The figure was very kindly sent to me free by @Moriarty of this parish...
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A blower Bentley with rockets.. amazing! 8)
I don't think it is possible to be more cooler than that!
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_24_jack_osullivan_01.jpg)
Another of the “minor” characters of Ascension this week. Meet Jack O’Sullivan, fifteen, arrived on Ascension six years ago after stowing away on a coal ship.
“Arrived” is a rather genteel term; he was discovered just as the ship had left Liverpool, and was unceremoniously dumped on the quayside in Ascension. Since then, he’s worked as a boot boy, messenger, and now sells newspapers to the wealthier patrons of the Island.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025_02_24_jack_osullivan_02.jpg)
O’Sullivan has a reputation for being first with the news: not only does he have the latest editions of most major papers each morning, he’s also the go-to person for anyone wanting to know what is happening in Ascension’s constantly evolving political and criminal scene; for a price, of course.
O’Sullivan is named after one of the Editors of the “Workers Dreadnought” a long defunct English language newspaper from the early 20th century. The figure was very kindly sent to me free by @Moriarty of this parish...
And a grand job you’ve made of him!
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Thanks, @Moriarty. The other figure may have a very different role.
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I'm working on a new story involving the next wannabe crime overlord:
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/charles_vane_auditions_02.jpg)
Let me know which one you think fits the character.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/charles_vane_auditions_03_01-1.jpg)
Version 1: Background manipulator (HT to @Moriarty for kindly sending this figure)
Sir Charles (?Weather?) Vane came to Ascension a few years back and has carved something of a niche in the thriving semi-legal underworld of the Island; although ?carved? implies rather too much effort; he bought a niche, by throwing money at the previous occupants. Then he occupied it, and padded it with more money.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/charles_vane_auditions_03_02.jpg)
Version 2: Flamboyant card shark
Where this money comes from is a matter of conjecture; he claims to have made his fortune from his ?Import and Export? business, but his failures in this are well known; the episode of the exploding cigars is still spoken of in high society.
Most likely he has a stipend from a wealthy family in the UK, paid as long as he stays well away and thus doesn?t embarrass them too much. On arrival, he bought a business offering ?security services? which discretely makes sure client businesses aren?t troubled by rivals, burglars, or employees who get too vociferous about being paid. This probably extends to other less legal services like protection rackets and similar.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/charles_vane_auditions_03_03.jpg)
Version 3: Amiable man about town
He also claims to be a ?Professional Gambler?, and is rumoured to be one of the businessmen behind the new casino. Anyone foolish enough to sit at a table with him should certainly look very carefully at the cards he deals.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/charles_vane_auditions_03_04.jpg)
Version 4: Pillar of the Empire
Vane is as likely to be seen in a reception at the governor?s house as having a quiet card game with an organised crime leader. He knows anyone who is anyone in the intense world of Ascension?s political elite, but will move on quickly to the next rising star. That?s how he got his name: ?Weather Vane?; you only have to watch him to know which way the political winds are blowing.
So now we have Vane?s personality, which of the figures above can represent him best? The unassuming gentleman who fades into the background and controls behind the scenes, the flamboyantly dressed card shark and man-about town? The smiling gentleman whose amenable exterior hides a dark schemer, or the strong jawed, well-dressed son of the Empire who hands out chocolates at the Ambassadors receptions?
Suggestions please...
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Banality of Evil motif: no. 4.
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Version 2 looks suitably shifty.
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Version 2 looks more like an ominous assistant (lackey), what has he got in that bag? He would pair well with version 3 or 4 as the real boss.
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V.2 could start as the #2, but eventually bumps off the Boss for not having what it really takes, ? la Scarface.
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Nice paint jobs on all four.
And 4 has the 'command presence' so I think it must be him. 1 being his devious sidekick, 2 being the lummox of a bagman - dumb but too strong to be overcome, 3 may be a bit small but he is a lot deadlier than he looks. And if things go too far south, then 1 is the most likely threat to his position of power.
And back to 4, he just has that "I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse" pose.
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V4 for me. A civic minded appearance, but there's just something about him that suggests a steely core.
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Thanks for all the votes, mind you it looks like you can't make your collective mind up either; after asking on various forums and on my blog the results are:
Fourth:
#2: "Card shark" (6 votes)
Third:
#1: "Background manipulator" (9 votes)
Second:
#3 "Amiable man about Town" (10 votes)
First:
#4 "Pillar of the empire" (12 votes)
It's interesting that I originally bought the #2 figure to be Charles Vane and then had second thoughts after painting: it looks like my second thoughts were correct, at least...
Banality of Evil motif: no. 4.
That sums up the feeling I'm going for, thanks.
Version 2 looks more like an ominous assistant (lackey), what has he got in that bag? He would pair well with version 3 or 4 as the real boss.
That's an interesting thought. I've also wondered about him as a sort of cult leader, or as @Cat suggested, a devious second in command; a thug just smart enough to be dangerous.
Nice paint jobs on all four.
Thanks. I'm working on my methods and trying to improve, so it's encouraging to hear the practice is making it better.
And 4 has the 'command presence' so I think it must be him. 1 being his devious sidekick, 2 being the lummox of a bagman - dumb but too strong to be overcome, 3 may be a bit small but he is a lot deadlier than he looks. And if things go too far south, then 1 is the most likely threat to his position of power.
And back to 4, he just has that "I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse" pose.
I like that list. Hmm...
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I really shouldn't hang out with you lot; you're a bad influence on me.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_03_emden_01.jpg)
I decided I wanted to build a ship for my characters on Ascension Island to use for travel or transport. This being Ascension, it will likely involve smuggling, stolen goods, or stowaways.
Someone on a forum suggested the SS Robin, a schooner/tramp steamer built in 1890 and now a museum ship in London. A few minutes research with a calculator showed that the scale length was 800mm by 120mm, and after I made a mock-up of the deck I decided I could reasonably reduce this to a more manageable 600mm without it looking too silly.
I made a base for a waterline model and in a fit of enthusiasm started building the substructure. It was then that I realised I?d gone and chosen a design with all kinds of awkward curves, which is why on the model only the rear cargo hold and the bridge are actually square.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_03_emden_08-2.jpg)
Of course, you could argue that this probably won't be as important as it sounds: after all, even on my best day I can't cut everything square and no-one seems to have noticed yet. I’ll just have to use my normal method: measure twice, cut once, and get the filler and sandpaper to cover the worst of the mistakes...
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"I really shouldn't hang out with you lot; you're a bad influence on me."
We're just trying to do our part - whatever it may be. :-X
Shall watch the ship build with interest, especially when you get to the superstructure (I cheat and use existing model hulls).
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I really shouldn't hang out with you lot; you're a bad influence on me.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_03_emden_01.jpg)
I decided I wanted to build a ship for my characters on Ascension Island to use for travel or transport. This being Ascension, it will likely involve smuggling, stolen goods, or stowaways.
Someone on a forum suggested the SS Robin, a schooner/tramp steamer built in 1890 and now a museum ship in London. A few minutes research with a calculator showed that the scale length was 800mm by 120mm, and after I made a mock-up of the deck I decided I could reasonably reduce this to a more manageable 600mm without it looking too silly.
I made a base for a waterline model and in a fit of enthusiasm started building the substructure. It was then that I realised I?d gone and chosen a design with all kinds of awkward curves, which is why on the model only the rear cargo hold and the bridge are actually square.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_03_emden_08-2.jpg)
Of course, you could argue that this probably won't be as important as it sounds: after all, even on my best day I can't cut everything square and no-one seems to have noticed yet. I?ll just have to use my normal method: measure twice, cut once, and get the filler and sandpaper to cover the worst of the mistakes...
Wanna see your progress
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Interesting ship! It reminds me my previous job, when I drew real ones in 3D for shipyards! ;)
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We're just trying to do our part - whatever it may be. :-X
Shall watch the ship build with interest, especially when you get to the superstructure (I cheat and use existing model hulls).
Wanna see your progress
Thanks. I'm a bit further, and managed to get the hull together by a process of trial and much error; sandpaper and filler may also have been involved.
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Interesting ship! It reminds me my previous job, when I drew real ones in 3D for shipyards! ;)
It's an interesting project: It ocurs to me that almost none of that I've built so far will be visible on the finished model...
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It's an interesting project: It ocurs to me that almost none of that I've built so far will be visible on the finished model...
Unless you figure a clever way to remove decks and panels to reveal the interior.
Go on, you know you want to.
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Unless you figure a clever way to remove decks and panels to reveal the interior.
Go on, you know you want to.
With the amount of mistakes, bodges and sections held together with random scraps, I think this stage is best left hidden...
I'll probably make the roof on the bridge and crew quarters removable, though...
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On my current BSC entry, after I built the cargo bay the very next thing I built, which used almost as much plastic card stock, was the support structure for the nose... which was immediately buried when I started putting the skin down. Always kind of weird, but a necessary party of building stuff like this!
The tramp freighter looks promising so far, good luck with all the curves of the hull. Sandable filler is your friend.
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On my current BSC entry, after I built the cargo bay the very next thing I built, which used almost as much plastic card stock, was the support structure for the nose... which was immediately buried when I started putting the skin down. Always kind of weird, but a necessary party of building stuff like this!
The tramp freighter looks promising so far, good luck with all the curves of the hull. Sandable filler is your friend.
Thanks. I'm glad I'm not alone in this. What's the "BSC entry?" [Edit: Found it]
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_11_emden_17.jpg)
I?ve been learning lots of new things on this project; for instance, I?m told the ?sag? in the hulls of ships in the 1920?s and 30?s, is called Sheer, and the overhang on the stern is known as the ?Elliptical? or ?Counter Stern?.
If you?re planning to build a boat with one or more of these features, the first step is to gather lots of pictures as reference material, gain a good understanding of how these features interact with each other and the other parts of the ship.
The second step is to then go and lie down until the desire passes, and make something sensible like a landing craft.
If you still insist on this madness, you will need plenty of 1mm thick card, more superglue than is healthy to share a room with, shellac, and a square kilometre of sandpaper.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_11_emden_14.jpg)
The counter stern in particular was a long process. The first step was making a template. This was held against the model, at which point it became obvious it was entirely the wrong shape, so I made another template, held this against the model, and repeated the process. Eventually I ended up with a piece of card that was the right shape. Sort of. At least close enough that I could fill in the gaps with scraps.
Now came the job of sticking it on. I applied glue to all the surfaces which would come in contact, and added drops of superglue to the corners, in the hope this would hold the card in place while the rest dried. The Superglue, of course, stuck to my fingers, modelling board and anything else until it came in contact with the rest of the model, at which point it became ineffective. When the card finally ended up in the right place I had to hold it awkwardly in position; letting go to change grip would have caused it to spring back.
After a fairly uncomfortable ten minutes holding the stern together, I decided to check if the glue was working.
It wasn?t.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_11_emden_10.jpg)
Eventually, the card was subdued and after leaving it to solidify overnight, I added a second layer, which worked somewhat better because of the larger surface to glue, trimmed the result down in places and filled gaps in others, and left that to solidify.
This done, I gave the lot a rough sanding, painted shellac all over the model and left the whole sticky mess overnight. Next morning it got more shellac, before going to work. Then I got out the 80 grit sandpaper, and lots of it: card soaked in shellac is very solid, so the sandpaper tends to give up first. Eventually I was able to go down to finer sandpaper, and fill remaining small gaps with wood filler and sand that in turn.
And then finally, a smooth hull. I was about to celebrate, then realised that having made all these complex shapes, I now had to make a deck to fit them?
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And then finally, a smooth hull. I was about to celebrate, then realised that having made all these complex shapes, I now had to make a deck to fit them?
Oh bugger! ;) lol well done though, you are a braver man than I.....
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Brilliant work Andy.
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I used to build cardboard models of waterline ships and airplanes in my youth. Those were printed cut-out kits which only needed scissors and glue to complete, yet they were often multiply curved in shape. Probably one of those could be upscaled on a photocopier and used for templates. Later I always wanted to build the VENTURE from that King Kong movie with Jack Black out of cardboard, but I never dared and bought a Playmobil freighter for conversion instead. I pull my head to your attempt to build one of those steamers completely from scratch.
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Your description of your gluing woes is so true and very funny :)
It?s a splendid project - and it promises to look splendid. When you?ve finished, you can make me one - I?ll send you my address :D
Doug
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Your description of your gluing woes is so true and very funny :)
Why yes. Just the other night, I had to take my XActo knife to [carefully] cut my fingers apart... again.
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Why yes. Just the other night, I had to take my XActo knife to [carefully] cut my fingers apart... again.
Oh dear :-[, may I suggest getting some super glue activator spray? Its not instant, instant but its much bloody quicker for setting and may save your poor abused fingertips? I have a big can and I won't use super glue without it now :-*
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That is looking brilliant. Shear madness to build but brilliant.
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Or find Aileen's Tacky Glue - but know you will also need a stronger permanent bonding adhesive, but it is less likely to be 'that finger' issue and can, hopefully, hold all those curves in place long enough to 'mold' the shape and then you can gently pull apart and re-glue with a permanent adhesive. I'm starting to avoid superglue - just too messy. Haven't abandoned it, just become adhesive of last resort.
Hull looking really good. Would some sort of foam been an easier base to work with? Styro, insulating, or even soft (furniture stuffing) foam? Might be a pain to shape but will hold together over the longer term.
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You are a very brave (mad) man sir, and I salute you!
It is looking really good so far and I am looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts. I certainly would have given up and thrown it all in the bin so time ago (and possibly bought something simple like the TTCombat cargo ship and done a conversion.
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Many thanks for the kind comments...
Your description of your gluing woes is so true and very funny :)
It?s a splendid project - and it promises to look splendid. When you?ve finished, you can make me one - I?ll send you my address :D
Doug
Glad I'm not alone with the issues regarding glue.
Making models to commission would be a dream job... Postage may be difficult though...
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Why yes. Just the other night, I had to take my XActo knife to [carefully] cut my fingers apart... again.
This is the trouble with Superglue: it was originally for sealing wounds on battlefields, so it works very well on skin. I did use it once for a nasty cut with a craft knife; it worked very well, too.
I find hot soapy water help, and washing your hair seems to clean your fingers too; I guess it's the movement, heat and water combine to remove it.
Unfortunately I've yet to find a way to get it off clothes, also, I don't have much hair...
Hull looking really good. Would some sort of foam been an easier base to work with? Styro, insulating, or even soft (furniture stuffing) foam? Might be a pain to shape but will hold together over the longer term.
Thank you. Foam would probably work well, I just don't like the feel of, so I avoid it if I can. Besides, Polystyrene has gone from being everywhere to being a common as pixie dust in Germany.
I think with the soaking in Shellac, the card will hold pretty well long term: I had to make holes in a couple of places and it's like cutting wood.
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That is looking brilliant. Shear madness to build but brilliant.
I see what you did there...
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that's really good... interesting shellac tip
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I may have got a little carried away buying details for this project:
(https://www.cyclechat.net/attachments/pxl_20250402_181940799-jpg.767639/)
I really like the carefully superglued compartments in the box.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_11_emden_21.jpg)
After the last burst of progress, I decided I wanted a few changes on the ship. The Poop deck, at the back of the ship, (& apparently the origin is exactly what you were thinking) was a bit too small, so I extended it by making the “cargo hatch” a bit smaller. This will allow me to extend the cabin a small amount, giving my characters more space for the purpose of engaging in fisticuffs or similar.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_11_emden_23.jpg)
Of course, the deck now had a dirty great join right across it and I’d also forgotten to score in the planking, which is why it now sports this rather fetching green addition with cosmetic planks duly applied. The “snooker table” look is because, like a lot of my materials, the card was “strategically acquired” so it comes in all colours. At least this time it isn't covered in stars. Or unicorns.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_11_emden_27.jpg)
To my surprise, fitting the decks wasn’t the endless trial and multitude of errors I’d expected, but it made up for that with the battle to cut straight slits in the bow and the stern for the mooring lines. It turns out that 2 1/2 mm of shellac-soaked card is pretty solid, and making consistent holes is difficult without a straight edge to cut against. Fortunately I was able to tidy the holes up to my usual standard of “I can hide it with weathering”, and I’m sure you won’t tell anyone about it, will you?
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At least this time it isn't covered in stars. Or unicorns.
That would make for an awesome looking ship though.
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Oh! Somehow missed this whole build until now, lovely stuff to read along!
I may have got a little carried away buying details for this project:
(https://www.cyclechat.net/attachments/pxl_20250402_181940799-jpg.767639/)
I really like the carefully superglued compartments in the box.
There is something so gratifying about well done custom packaging.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_11_emden_32.jpg)
I said I’d probably go wandering off from my prototype at some point in the project, and here we are already. The ship I used as a starting point was built with an open bridge, but I’d read that at some time during her service life it had been enclosed. I imagine this was a relief for all concerned, so I decided to include this luxury feature.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_11_emden_30.jpg)
Then I realised that as I’d designed the model, the steps up to the bridge would be too close to the top of the hull, meaning that anyone climbing them would be in danger of falling overboard. Given the choice of redesigning the hull and moving the steps back, I of course chose the more difficult option which after some swearing resulted in some rather complicated and almost identical steps, recessed into the hull.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_11_emden_31.jpg)
Moving the steps back meant that the bridge now changed shape, making it more complex, not least because I wanted the front to be curved and because the roof had to be removable in case a future story involves stealing something from the bridge, or indeed stealing the ship.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_11_emden_32a.jpg)
I got there in the end after emptying another bottle of superglue, but proper model makers of a sensitive nature probably shouldn’t look closely at some of the construction details or mention things like “right angles”.
I’ll just add clutter and weathering; it’ll be fine.
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Great attention to detail, gorgeous build :)
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Stunning build. I'm so glad you didn't enter the Build Something Competition lol lol lol lol.
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that is galloping along...
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You’re a talented bloke ;)
Doug
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Right angles are vastly overrated!
That looks great, nice proportions and the whole thing looks proper.
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You’re a talented bloke ;)
Doug
that is galloping along...
Many thanks.
Stunning build. I'm so glad you didn't enter the Build Something Competition lol lol lol lol.
I didn't know there was one, to be honest. Fortunately I'm not usually a competition type of person.
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Great attention to detail, gorgeous build :)
Missed that. Many thanks.
Right angles are vastly overrated!
That looks great, nice proportions and the whole thing looks proper.
Thanks. Of course, it's an interesting question if a wooden wheelhouse would be very square after a few months on the sea in different weather and humidity extremes.
The proportions looked right to me, but it's good to have it confirmed.
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Looks great! I can envision lots of fun games using this ship as scenery/terrain...!
Mike Demana
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Looks great! I can envision lots of fun games using this ship as scenery/terrain...!
Mike Demana
Thanks Mike. I have to keep an eye on that: I tend to make things much more than I end up playing the games with them...
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_30_emden_35.jpg)
I spent more time than is strictly healthy dithering about what the cabin should and could look like, not helped by my complete lack of knowledge about how Big Floaty Boxes work.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_30_emden_37.jpg)
In the end, I decided to aim for a balance between what I think looks right and the needs of telling stories, although as usual I had my thumb on the scales in favour of the latter. I expect the ship breaks a dozen maritime laws already, and I doubt it will get any better. If anyone complains, I’ll just keep saying “alternative history” until they go away.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_30_emden_36.jpg)
With such a tiny space available, I decided this section would only contain the crew mess and the captain’s tiny cabin, so I added the door under the steps to hopefully give the impression there were more below decks; (note to self: add portholes in the hull below the cabin).
After moving the chimney back and forth so often it was becoming a pendulum, I eventually decided it took up the least space at the front of the cabin, so this luxurious piece of real estate was allocated to the captain, with a bed and desk wrapped around the base. Due to a typical lack of planning, this also meant blocking two of the portholes I’d cut; never mind…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_30_emden_40.jpg)
I’m aware that every character has to move around with a big circle of plastic on their feet, but that making every walkway and door wide enough for this would look terrible. I’m hoping that there are enough strategically placed spaces inside and out that characters can move around, although the captain’s cabin will get very crowded, very quickly.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_03_30_emden_38.jpg)
Next is the roof, with some basic detail, then back to the rest of the ship which still needs a fair bit of detailing, masts, and anchor windlass, and some hatches over the hold access holes to stop characters falling in; or at least stop me dumping bits of card in them while I’m taking photographs…
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Its looking good so far!
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Here’s one that could have been made for you. ‘Q Planes’, 1939, Olivier, Richardson et al. Missing aircraft, plucky pilots, nefarious ship. So clipped, the Royal Mint would have them hanged for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrK5XqcekiY
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absolutely brilliant
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absolutely brilliant
Thanks: it's proving lots of fun.
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Here’s one that could have been made for you. ‘Q Planes’, 1939, Olivier, Richardson et al. Missing aircraft, plucky pilots, nefarious ship. So clipped, the Royal Mint would have them hanged for it.
I wasn't expecting much, but that was pretty good, thanks. I see the point about the "Viking" being similar to my ship. Maybe I'll make a set of "Viking" nameplates...
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That ship is ace. I like the mix of playability with realism.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_56.jpg)
This ship is similar to Ascension Island, in that anyone on board will want to escape at some point, and probably sooner rather than later. It will probably experience a variety of incidents, from fisticuffs up to pirates and explosions; the sort of thing that sensible people would prefer to avoid.
Plus, of course, it’s made of cardboard.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_58.jpg)
It turns out that after the loss of the Titanic in 1914, the first “Safety of Life At Sea” treaty stipulated the need for lifeboats on ships, so of course this one had to have enough to at least look law-abiding.
I chickened out of making the lifeboat hulls on the basis I’d end up with two boats that would look almost but not quite the same. Instead, I used a commercial model, and limited myself to making a card former then giving it a “tarpaulin” of loo roll soaked in wood glue. After this dried a bit, I sliced the excess off and superglued the remaining material to the boat, then painted a few coats of Shellac on the lot.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_59.jpg)
In the likely event of an emergency, the idea is apparently that some poor chap goes up to control the davits, the small crane like objects that swing the boats out and down to the deck level where everyone else jumps on and floats away to safety, while the aforementioned poor chap presumably either jumps into the water or goes down with the ship: there’s a reason this design is not used any more.
This discovery led to a certain amount of faffing while I considered different ways to make these rather distinctive items, before realising that in working in a bicycle workshop means I have access to a potentially unlimited number of discarded spokes. A bit of digging later I had a handful which I bent to shape on a piece of pipe, cut to size and added some rudimentary detail with bits from old ballpoint pens and paper straws.
Finally, because I felt like every available surface would be used on a boat like this, I made a water tank out of a till roll, and strapped it down with some old guitar strings.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_53a.jpg)
Next job: anchors…
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As I wrote in the other topic, this ship turned out really great!
It turns out that after the loss of the Titanic in 1914, the first “Safety of Life At Sea” treaty stipulated the need for lifeboats on ships, so of course this one had to have enough to at least look law-abiding.
While SOLAS was really introduced in 1914 in response for the 11 Oscar movie, lifeboat regulations existed before, and the Titanic actually fulfilled, even overperformed them with some extra lifeboats. The problem was that the size of the ships grew really fast in that time, and the regulations did not follow that with upates. The biggest ship category in the regulation was the 10k tons and over, while the Titanic was 50k+ tons, so five times the size what the writers of the regulations could think of.
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Sounds like they used the wrong metric for calculating the required lifeboats when they linked it to the ship’s tonnage. They could have applied a sliding scale calibrated to the ship’s designed passenger occupancy plus crew. Granted, a lot of ships at the time carried both passengers and cargo, but the passenger number is the key one to consider for emergency evacuation… Hindsight and all that. :?
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That steamer is looking quite snazzy!. As always I am impressed with your work.
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Sounds like they used the wrong metric for calculating the required lifeboats when they linked it to the ship’s tonnage. They could have applied a sliding scale calibrated to the ship’s designed passenger occupancy plus crew. Granted, a lot of ships at the time carried both passengers and cargo, but the passenger number is the key one to consider for emergency evacuation… Hindsight and all that. :?
Yes, the two drawbacks of the pre-1914 regulation was the lack of updates for increasing size and linking the required number to the ship size instead of the passenger count (as ships transporting this huge amount of passengers was also a relatively new concept).
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Coming along nicely! I am looking forward to your hatches for the caargo hold.
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Whilst there are some excellent scratchbuilders on LAF I think.you are in a different league.
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Whilst there are some excellent scratchbuilders on LAF I think.you are in a different league.
I'm a member of a couple of model railway forums, and the models they scratchbuild make are in another league. I'm a kid who never grew out of making stuff from cereal boxes. Thank you though.
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_63.jpg)
One of the reasons why water transport has historically been popular, is that moving big heavy things over water is a lot easier than say, dragging it over fields or rock outcrops. This is because water moves around and supports your load, meaning it can be moved with comparatively little effort.
Unfortunately this comes back to bite you at the end of the day when you go to park your ship: instead of staying where you put it, it can drift off whichever way the wind or the water happens to be going with results that can be embarrassing at best and quite catastrophic at worst.
Of course, when you are next to land this is fairly easy to resolve: you tie your boat to something immobile and preferably inanimate, and retire for the night.
Out at sea though, you need an anchor, which essentially is a very heavy hook shaped object on the end of an equally heavy chain. When you want to stop for the night you chuck this overboard, it sinks, hooks the bottom, and there you are, or rather there you stay.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_60.jpg)
Of course, the important part of that last paragraph is “heavy”, meaning that the next day you are going to need a way of getting it back up again. Enter the anchor windlass. This provides the power to pull up the chain, and dumps it in the “chain locker” which is essentially a hole under the windlass where the chain it will sit out of the way until it is needed again.
So I needed a windlass, and this of course is where any sensitive engineers should look away. I’ve been hanging around a lot of tabletop gamers, and have been enjoying their adventures making things out of old bits of junk. I’d been looking for a chance to try this out in my own strange world, and this seemed the perfect moment to use some parts from a broken printer at work. Before someone makes comment, yes it was certainly broken. I know it was broken: anything would be broken after falling that far.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_65.jpg)
Anyway, some of the cogs lurking in the now exposed printer’s inner workings were just asking to be part of a piece of industrial machinery, so I put those in the centre and added bits and pieces until it looked right.
By the way, having wandered far too far down a rabbit hole marked “types of anchor” I can tell you these are Stockless anchors, which are apparently designed with a hinge to dig into the seabed and hold the ship. As an added advantage, they can be folded against the outside of the ship in the way shown, thus neatly saving storage space. These are also bought in: I could have made them from card, but I’d already inhaled far too much superglue for this project.
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Not being an engineer, I think that this is a triumph lol
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It looks perfectly plausible to me, although I have no idea what the real thing would look like. Sea water constanrly dashing and washing over the bow will make some poor crew member more often than just frequently have to thoroughly cover the exposed cogs with huge lumps of grease, however…
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_66.jpg)
With all this work on the tramp steamer it’s worth pointing out that the point of a cargo ship, when you get down to it, essentially, is to, well, carry stuff.
You’re welcome. This is the sort of high level technical analysis that draws people to this thread.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_07_emden_67.jpg)
Any cargo also needs to be kept safe from seawater or rain, and in the case of expeditions to capture tentacled creatures from the dungeon dimensions, stop them escaping. It’s also considered good practice not to allow crew members to fall in the hold every time the ship moves unpredictably, so as well as a hold, the ship needs a good solid hold cover.
You’d think this would be a quick and easy project, but no. Read on to find what happens when you don’t plan ahead, the limits of the internet for historical research, and why measuring carefully is only really useful when you are actually concentrating…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_22_emden_68.jpg)
Having established the need for a hold cover, I had to confront another problem I’d been ignoring until this point. All these characters run about on a perspex base about 25mm (1?) in diameter, and I’d gone and made the walkway on each side of the hole a mere 20mm wide, or “a bit too small” in imperial measurements.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_22_emden_67.jpg)
So, I came up with a cunning plan: firstly, I made a frame to go over the hole and make it about four millimetres smaller on each side. This gave me a bit of wiggle room, and I added slits in the bottom of the vertical part of the frame, so the bases can slip through…
After three drafts, this still description still doesn’t make sense. Just look at the pictures below:
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_22_emden_73.jpg)
The overhang also helps to hide the walls of the “hold” so it looks a bit more cavernous, which means I can pretend this wasn’t an improvised fix for my lack of planning, but instead was a carefully thought through optical illusion.
Finally, I was able to move on to the covers themselves. You may be surprised to hear that for once, I didn’t fall down the internet research rabbit hole; this is because there aren’t that many pictures of 1920’s cargo steamer cargo hold hatches for some reason.
Try to contain your disappointment.
Left to my own devices I decided to look at what other model makers were doing, and well, make
stuff up.
Thus it was that I found this thread by @frd
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=147600.0
Featuring a lovely metal framed hull cover filled with wooden panelling. I stole the idea made a variation on the design: wood is cheap, lightweight and durable; small hatches could be removed for inspections or access, and in the case of tentacled creatures, air holes. Of course, tentacled dungeon dimension creatures may not need air, but good Cryptozoologists always come prepared.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_22_emden_71.jpg)
Finally, every project has at least one “learning experience”, and in this case I learned that there’s not much point measuring if you aren’t really concentrating. I’d been feeling very smug because both the large and small cover on the ship had the same size wooden hatches, until I placed the half finished cover on the small hold access…
And realised that it wouldn’t fit.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_22_emden_69.jpg)
After some swearing, I made a smaller version. I’ll now try to build the original cover into another model in the future without anyone noticing. Watch this space…
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lol That’s hilarious! Also a bit reassuring to hear that I am not the only one who builds things and then has to figure out afterwards how to correct the “features” I didn’t notice beforehand.
Can’t fault the final result, though, the hatches look very functional to me. I’m no marine architect, but they seem quite plausible.
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The cargo hold cover was really what I was waiting for in this build and you did not dissapoint (except maybe yourself in the process). It came out well and I will definitely borrow portions of your design for my project.
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Historical research? Say what? Are you trying to say movies aren't the end all, be all of research? How dare you confuse us!
:o
:D
lol
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Real Life As Seen In the Moviestm, that's my goal!
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Great looking boat!
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Spectacular build! :o :o
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lol That’s hilarious! Also a bit reassuring to hear that I am not the only one who builds things and then has to figure out afterwards how to correct the “features” I didn’t notice beforehand.
Can’t fault the final result, though, the hatches look very functional to me. I’m no marine architect, but they seem quite plausible.
Thanks, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story as well.
The cargo hold cover was really what I was waiting for in this build and you did not dissapoint (except maybe yourself in the process). It came out well and I will definitely borrow portions of your design for my project.
Thank you, but I must gove credit where it is due: they're basically stolen from @Frd's lovely 15mm steamer model. Thread here:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=147600.0
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_29_emden_76.jpg)
In the unlikely event any cargo reaches its destination in this ship, it will need to be unloaded. Obviously today this is done using containers and massive cranes, but on 1930’s tramp steamers, and in particular this tramp steamer, things are considerably more low-tech.
As far as I can tell, the system for loading and unloading in Ascension would be a very labour-intensive process, where a lot of men would each move boxes and sacks of cargo between ship and shore. Even with cranes, this must have been a very, very slow process.
Presumably the derrick would assist the shore cranes, or be used on even more remote places where there wasn’t a crane available, or where the ship would have to unload to a smaller boat alongside.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_29_emden_77.jpg)
Anyway, I decided it would be interesting to try and make one, which shows I never learn.
After some dithering research, I contacted a member of a model railway forum who is a former merchant sailor and has built some very lovely ship models. He kindly gave me a full description of the working of a derrick with enough accompanying pictures that even I could understand it well enough to build a very rough copy.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_29_emden_78.jpg)
I won’t pretend that the result is technically accurate. My goal was to make a moderately convincing and, importantly, fairly robust background for gaming, rather than a perfect copy of the original: it will likely get walloped a few times while we move little figures around.
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_05_29_emden_75.jpg)
Painting and weathering next, although probably not for a week or two, as I’ll be heading off to the UK to visit family with Beautiful Daughter…
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That is looking superb, can't wait to see the final result.
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That is looking superb, can't wait to see the final result.
Superb to say the very least. This build is really the high side of outstanding.
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That's one excellent looking ship! :o
Mike Demana
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Super job!
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Re: the derrick - where you lead, I shall follow. Nice work with enough photos to 'appropriate' ideas.
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If in Germany it is vital to have a Derrick. It resolves all mysteries. :D
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025_06_27_figures_02-1.jpg)
Oh, dear, this thread has been rather neglected. This is for a variety of reasons, one of which was visiting family in the UK. sorry about that; mind the dust...
I did however manage to get some souvenirs, York is a very helpful place in this regard, because it is a major tourist centre. As such the shops offer such wonderful things as miniature telephone boxes, mugs showing the city crest, and for the high class tourist, nodding dashboard models of Charles Windsor.
I managed to avoid all these, (although steampunk “Souvenirs of Ascension” coffee mugs would be some fun merchandise) and I instead came home with the items seen above.
I’m working on a few more gangs to make life on Ascension more interesting as well as a few more navy figures: in the last game I managed to get my Royal Navy Air Force Police mixed up so I think it is time for some more variety...
On that subject, it is high time I got a game together and moved the story on Ascension forward a little, but that will take a while for various reasons. Mostly because life has intervened on several fronts at once, but also because I keep getting distracted designing steampunk coffee mugs…
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Somehow I missed the cargo ship updates: absolutely brilliant work
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:o :o Just discovered this excellent thread.
I wanted to make a ship like this since a long time but could not imagine how to make the hull shape.
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Absolutely brilliant! Perfect pulp gaming prop! Well done!
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_81.jpg)
Life has been getting on top of me for a bit, but I was determined to make some progress on the Tramp Steamer this week: I decided on the whistle as a quick and easy project.
Long term readers familiar with my high-tech fine scale model making will not be surprised that I made the whistle from the best quality materials; a clothes tag connector from a shirt I bought in the UK, from Marks and Spencer, no less.
It takes a serious state of perma-nerd to see model making materials while clothes shopping. It probably also qualifies as the most obscure souvenir ever…
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Did you actually want the shirt or just buy it for the part? ;)
But yeah it's a good addition that most won't think about.
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Did you actually want the shirt or just buy it for the part? ;)
...maybe.
(Honestly, I needed the shirt for a wedding, but I may have been swayed to get this one by the tag. Perhaps...)
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_82.jpg)
After the excitement of actually making stuff last week, I decided that the trap doors on the Tramp Steamers hold covers needed hinges, so I made up a prototype out of very small bits of card.
Lo and behold, it worked: the trapdoor looked like it could be opened on a hinge. At least if you squint a bit, and ignore the absence of another hinge…
Much smugness, until I looked at the rest of the ship and realised that I’ll need to make two hinges for each doorway, which means lots of tiny bits of card, superglue and sanding…
Again.
I never learn…
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(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_83-1.jpg)
After last week’s realisation that I was, once again, going to be making lots of little bits, I as usual sighed, got out my knife and started cutting…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_84-3.jpg)
Then gluing...
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_85-1.jpg)
Then cutting some more, and gluing some more…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_85a-1.jpg)
Let’s not mention the moment I realised I’d miscounted, again, and had to cut a whole fresh batch in order to make enough for all the hatches…
But eventually after even more cutting, and sanding, and supergluing everything to everything else, pulling it apart again and gluing things to what they were supposed to be attached to, I had a set of sort of almost identical hinges for the ships hold covers…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_88-2.jpg)
Finally finished: that was bugging me for some time.
Another part of the ship that’s bugging me is those Lifeboat davits: I’ve been trying to convince myself they don’t need a rope, but I’m failing…
(https://korschtal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025_05_29_emden_87-3.jpg)
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And one day, glued fingers notwithstanding, it will be done..and played with. Or so we all believe. lol
Looking grand if a bit crowded on the decks. Oh, no, did I say that? Now he's going to go back and rebuild the whole thing!!! :o
Or not. :D
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That hold cover is just brilliant!! :-*