Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => Topic started by: Macrossmartin on April 20, 2021, 09:19:35 AM
-
Greetings, all — especially those of you who share a love of flying battleships. :)
Do you remember Leviathans?
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/DEcu7TYyCn8kt1toPXM9Wgc75ORuiYhkstw3XGUdg55XdjwUKwNsVCCDDC3sjLIngE1xmbdcGjNRr3t_T4E1ZpFoQ0kHcV0piAVBb88SBxljElkDCuGBvzyvHOE8OXmXIHHaOQAxpg=w2400)
Leviathans was a big, boxed game released by Catalyst Game Studio back in 2012. Hex-based and utilising some unique dice mechanics, Leviathans come complete with eight assembled and painted plastic models of gravity-defying warships (known in-universe as Leviathans), for the British and French fleets.
Unfortunately, problems with production allied with some ill-tested mechanics to strip Leviathans of the exposure it otherwise deserved. For almost a decade, it has languished, the runt of the Catalyst litter.
That status might be about to change, however. Catalyst recently announced a new Kickstarter to enable the Germans to come out and play. A compilation of short stories set in the Leviathans universe has just been published. Things are looking up... maybe! ::)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rRchb2gM4cIsZeOfpB8SLgeeq2LhR3mde1abKK3sgeR-DSFmzS6KcXBJAW6cN_NCBFmMRZDmoJkA8dCoTUFvlvo8dBtbFzTaTz2_-Ffoi2VZlUB5oRlIIdJms0KJGzb7TPQZdzNT8Q=w2400)
In hopeful anticipation of soon seeing gaming tables festooned with fantastical flying fleets, I have acquired a few copies of Leviathans, and have started tweaking, remodelling and repainting the models to my personal taste.
While I must admit that the Leviathans' rather — um — curvaceous hulls are not to the tastes of all, I have come to love them, and their rather silly steampunk brass fittings. (No goggles, pith helmets or cogs, at least!)
What I don't love are some of the very uninspiring fittings and weapons. The British ships, in particular, are ugly ducklings with apartment block superstructures and anaemic turrets that look like they were added as a mere afterthought. Also, none of the ships feature small boats (skyboats!) or other details which would do much to enhance the appeal of the models. Something must be done!
Fortunately, I recently did a deal with Elegoo to buy a pair of Mars 2 Pro 3D printers for my local Makerspace community centre to use. (These things are dangerous! I'm sure I had more free time before they came into my life!!) So, now I can produce all the fittings, masts, turrets and what-have-you that the ships need to complete their fitting out.
The first thing I sculpted was a bunch of new Turrets. Those of the French Leviathans are alright, but I thought the rounded rectangle (roundtangle?) of real French pre-dreadnoughts are more attractive. The British got Miyazaki-inspired half-dome designs to replace the hodgepodge of shapes that previously blighted their decks.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VJ_lZz6dqTZ2VViLMn8lnOflkMAQ9vk8VT9Pzom4Io0cVx59WYEbzAGSedJPsTiZoSjwYoe_CzAspwAu-iYTM4LDAQXbk5E3PZeyiE-1THt4vUB89qXzMPjFytWR2MFO9vlI7BrTsg=w2400)
Also, I sculpted some replacements for the British cruisers' blocky bridges, plus some little skyboats for ferrying about Admirals, and their cousins and their aunts.
Here's HML Behemoth, the first of the British battlewagons with new turrets and new masts, too. This is a work-in-progress, as you'll no doubt realise from the big hole on her after deck... :D The colour scheme was inspired by postwar Fleet Air Arm aircraft colours.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FPFQpgrfwpg5gW5IhCS9WhtAu88eMl1dhR0ru_OWWAQ0hFbPQpo3uo2YijZJRu_7OHNID-hFvK6tdmdaCSqZLi4lZ8u76VZIj--fD4TBPnTjNMtt43kOIzdkN6jbSG2isGb2C_564Q=w2400)
Still have to print her skyboat contingent, and I'm debating if she should have a dorsal 'third bridge' a'la Space Battleship Yamato:
(https://www.collectiondx.com/gallery2/d/100166-5/P9110913.jpg?g2_GALLERYSID=83df62d7e540fe8c92f79d04186706e2)
Lastly, what's a game of pre-WW1 battleships — even flying ones — without their nemesis: Torpedo boats!
So, I sculpted one...
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cspW2U9kGNx7f8pp3pIzB_rcqxqsnBcGo157ZL4pJ79NpVxOuIErAfUQWf0ARHYGE4UNgs9dQYIIMyhba7fpjBVKIH1We6lIjYBujEDNSDb-tn1KXolNubTMLvBiMBoFGrE-DFuMVQ=w2400)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/h6LLkNOOJbDU363_O05e-ZVgVUE-47xC-hCHDYRKVIPtf7aMp0L45ZNaGL43m5BvXgS2AznLeCjYpc3e4Qwt32BLabTxGdooYlXVyZSM6KvJfuJv3qhaQF8qNEKzvy3iU41RFVZt4Q=w2400)
Looking forward to adding a squadron of this boat to my fleet. Although I'll need to design a ship card for this little thing before it takes to the skies.
That's all for this post, but I'll be back with more pretty soon. There's another seven Lev's in the dockyard right now, eager to get into action, so I'd better get cracking!
- Martin
-
Nice! Interestingly enough I have a flying submarine I built for the WW2 club a couple of years ago...in 1/48... ;D
-
Hi!
The HML Behemoth looks good!
Are the printers you obtained the resin variety, they create prints worth using.
I’m local to you will you be selling your ship upgrades?
Leviathans at Little Wars Adelaide 2021 would be interesting!😳
Cheers!
-
I’ve never seen these at close enough quarters to comment on the quality of the details, but I do like the overall designs. It is what I had envisaged for Barsoomian flyers (if not cannon). Lovely torpedo boat design!
-
Do you remember Leviathans?
Yup.
And I really wanted to like them, but as you say, the guns and fittings seemed a bit off. I also was wondering if the product would be supported with more miniatures and in sum decided to wait. Nothing seem to come of it so I never bought it. But I really wanted to... what a shame.
Your HML Behemoth looks fantastic. Now had the original minis looked even close to that, I would have jumped right in and bought the game.
-
I wanted to get into this game, but it was just a wee bit more than I wanted to pay. It was even available at my local for a while.
I am interested in this style of game, so look forward to seeing how this progresses.
-
Great stuff 8)
-
Brilliant work!
-
Hi!
The HML Behemoth looks good!
Are the printers you obtained the resin variety, they create prints worth using.
I’m local to you will you be selling your ship upgrades?
Leviathans at Little Wars Adelaide 2021 would be interesting!😳
Cheers!
You're not the first to hint at Leviathans at Little Wars... it just might happen, although I'm likely to also want to run Saucer War One, because it will be well into beta testing by then. The first saucers are being printed right now... :) Yet again, I find myself needing two of me!
The Elegoo Mars 2 Pro's are indeed resin printers. FDM's cannot produce the sort of fine detail this scale dictates.
I would certainly be happy to sell prints of my parts and whatever ships I produce. Suggestions about what I should produce folks??? ;)
Also, I intend to open a store on Wargaming3D for those who might want to purchase my .STL files for use on printers of their own. More about that when the time comes.
Thank you everybody for the comments. A little ego massage never goes astray when you have a pile of 40 models to file, sand, putty, sand, drill, hack, print, build, prime, paint, paint some more, weather... o_o
More to see next week!
-
Look forward to seeing more of your work. Thanks for sharing
-
Greetings again, all!
Pardon my coughing and sneezing throughout this new instalment in my Leviathans saga, but the flu' flew in last week leaving me bedridden much of the time. Before it hit, however, I managed to get some more parts sculpted and printed and daub some paint on a few more ships. So, let's take a look!
First up, you might recall me debating the addition of a Yamato-inspired '3rd Bridge' under the Battleships' hulls. That proved a pretty easy sculpt; A plug at the top fits into the hull's channel for the flightpeg, and the peg now fixes to the 3rd Bridge's underside.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/u6xELfGJI6xAidyxg9sLoK0mWv89hDOYp1hJBqbColHmfMhx9AvcFrk3AWKb1YKXE9FG2mmh9znP8nEJiqsCFGfhs7v6pKMAff0-EHToa2RNixAfpwl1azNRzoAAKzvrXkxE4QGO-w=w2400)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/LgoROG6qkAriVNtnaEhUKouRXKpxaSfWCx9gvb8j0d-zJEef-ovKCCS58snvi8sdzXdsoJHOIsSUYmTqEGXrQ6bZP4UnaeQ2N6KdWrB6ubWCHz6EuRFv20zf24Q2ieEd1ojs9XJXeQ=w2400)
I made it look submergible, because I envision the Leviathans resting in water between sorties, to reduce structural stress. Possibly they can do double-duty as surface-going warships too? (I'll leave it to someone else to saw their Lev's in half as waterline models, though!!) :D
And here' the print, in place under the Behemoth:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WJqRTUyyZP6juYsDZTD9cv2e20G854StRle0oRJV87LhVkuK8i4jlWwovCk4fyK4miqNGjLoiYGxkobS7SixnjytFJOt3pZ7teX5zdjQk28T-2DfXQ45YEhe1swyhC_fwpv1xa4nsw=w2400)
(Still got to detail and weather the ships, so looking a bit monotone down here...)
So, what's been painted? Well. Behemoth has been joined by her sister Giant, rushed back to home skies from the China Station with such haste that her crew hasn't had time to repaint her superstructure light ochre.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nOariaRjUaDqprjlIP0CskMTUIl3os-2tOSg8vlupwLBmvNB64LwlcEfc-w37VNwjrk74G9L1dYba72vLcIb_HdquuZ3PepbfJidLlYxOlbqeHBSjLGLOFyU9GhspRZuYlbDJzmmvw=w2400)
with them, the 1st Cruiser Squadron is almost ready to take to the skies. I discarded the rubbish, tiny tailplanes the British Cruiser comes with, and sculpted a new tail with twin rudders.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/JRHsLQOj44bcDEFjmRadD5cXkOlh5G4UatsL_5ssZP_G0tm9aQisCXOIg9vsexjDi1gP4wv2Y0Dun_687tw6pwP67Cxr6U3RNYwElwE14i3gjgZj3xs3EJrw6KwWnDIBei1Naoozig=w2400)
These also neatly hide some bloody silly 'ducted fans' sticking out either side of the stern. For those not in the know, these are supposed to be the means by which British Leviathans are propelled through the sky... sideways, one must presume, because these things thrust out at right angles to the direction of flight! I can't understand this. Maybe if they were swivelling nozzles or something... but, they're not. I'll have to sculpt something to get these ships moving forwards, won't I?
But that's for next time. Like the Battleships, the Cruisers had their skinny tripod masts replaced with monopole ones complete with fighting tops. I'm thinking the Cruisers also need '3rd Bridges' to round off their new look.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/En2rdhpa5ZAhtWOH2nkPQvcH4UgD2oQOIVWFXGeIPcec651MqCc9BkWxWXEevojTvdXwieQsNvK-R70UlPvNzMfQQ2k37Q8-vP-xlAwy09RT4Fxe6V1l5_rSPZVogh_T4ET3-nS3Zg=w2400)
And to finish up, a quick squadron review:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/B7WEj6ykPMxhFAbIV3wPf66y1NxYFJc8m86HvGDAIGpQXOjRJmlg2Cdo6q4ZDrgPkIAv4gFRxgJnmNns5QCtnvpdJf_whkuZgZbMsPxEGIb5aFl9x8I_sK0o4qJyj3xM0cbnsRooIA=w2400)
I've also been tinkering with the rules, in an effort to add some flexibility and to make torpedoes actually feel like torpedoes. (Or damn huge air-to-air missiles, really.) A playtest just before I became unclean suggests I'm on the right track, so I'll post those here once they've had a polish.
More to come soon!
-
Painting looks great and that lower addition works well :)
-
Looking good Martin!
-
Jeune Ecole de l'air! The French reveal the Moineau class Torpedo Boat. (Coming to Wargaming3D for all Leviathans fans as soon as I can get some test prints done!)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/URD__pvtHMGoGYDj6dEtSOyq4_dsHgY9EP0DCV7hNQNxWYDyTZ7wRhHqbnKxU_iqxLjy26T-xQPOsJ4CfCodVKCFo7po14E38UZNR2ZoI2bPkZExdgfAIDmiNxj-OP4aj1-_KgwVzw=w2400)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/K84NJkDT5eW486CkGnolp4gcYCega_7WXrzVT6jFBfKHgvn364a6MvjKNpo8NsgC3uiIgWqjVyKxEyocqz68fKfuwVN7XTddMhrntISrCBqVByN7TeXOd-784WbJ6OaMhNR1llZXgQ=w2400)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/j-I2TcvVRZ3mEQCUY005lOnK_tlwTJTav_-pW6O9VTuVDp0rNlEbIwRzHvIoZ1YCChO9UMBHBHUtykLXNrbgUCl0qvYqEAyKi36N0ntOtnEOAIVjLwS_iQcu8954BlIAgrheq25gHA=w2400)
Also: Here's a link to a PDF of my rules modifications in which I have a tilt at making torpedoes more... torpedoey. There's also a couple of optional rules rewarding big Breach Rolls and letting Crews move around their own ship, rather than leaving them superglued to their Location.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ov1cBXh0E_kACtkbW6GdmE3QCzBIxK9f/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ov1cBXh0E_kACtkbW6GdmE3QCzBIxK9f/view?usp=sharing)
All laid out in the same format as the original Leviathans rulebook on Letter size pages for you to print. I hope you give them a try! ~8)
A pondering: In a world in which getting airborne can be done in turbine-powered, steel-hulled vessels, would there be no incentive to develop flimsy, linen and wood aeroplanes? If not, then would craft like this torpedo boat evolve into the fighters and bombers of the future?
-
A pondering: In a world in which getting airborne can be done in turbine-powered, steel-hulled vessels, would there be no incentive to develop flimsy, linen and wood aeroplanes? If not, then would craft like this torpedo boat evolve into the fighters and bombers of the future?
Fighters and bombers would make cheap attrition units. Bombers would be a very inexpensive way of trying to take out a leviathan.
And given that the ships could appear anywhere it seems as if bombers would also make an cheap distributed defence against them.