Modelmaking Misadventures: The Ascenscion Island Chronicles.

[snitcythedog]

Now that is impressive.  Bravo. 

[has.been]

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.

[Andy in Germany]

Thanks for the comments...

Were your parents frightened of you as a child? 

I was certainly left to my own devices a lot, being an introverted only child probably contributed...

[Andy in Germany]

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…



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.

[Spinal Tap]

Great stuff as usual.

[FifteensAway]

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.   

[Andy in Germany]

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.




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…

[OSHIROmodels]

Great thread 

[Andy in Germany]

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…

[has.been]

I like the truck.

[Andy in Germany]

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.



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.



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…

[marianas_gamer]

The truck turned out very nicely and I like the back story!

[AndrewBeasley]

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)

[Andy in Germany]

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.



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…

[Moriarty]

‘Randomised violence has no excuse. Organised violence needs none’.