Ledded's Story Hour Miniatures thread- UPDATED Feb 25 Zeppelin Pictures
ledded
Herder of monkies
nyrfherdr said:
Oh heck man, Pierce and Fludogg make some of our coolest stuff with the Hirst Arts buildings. I am much more obsessive compulsive and better suited to less labor intensive projects, but many many more of them
. I dont know if I have the patience to cast a bunch of bricks for hours, then put them together for hours without making a mistake, THEN get to painting/detailing.I shot a few pics of the zeppelin yesterday before I started to prime it up for painting. It still has a few details and pieces to add, plus some paint, then it will be done.
I'll post up the "in progress" pics soon.
ledded
Herder of monkies
Airship in Progress
Okay, here's the airship/zeppelin in progress. It's mostly done with construction, only needs a few of the detail pieces.
It was originally based on an early Prussian/German type zeppelin, but the more I messed with it the more fantastic it became. Hey, it's a gaming piece. So sue me.
These pictures show it prior to priming, hanging from a tree in my front yard. The hooks are so that we can hang it (and others) from the pegboard inserted into Fludogg's basement ceiling in lieu of drop-ceiling panels.
It's over 2 feet long, BTW, so the undercar can hold a good many minis... it's over a foot long and at least 4 or 5 inches wide.
Okay, here's the airship/zeppelin in progress. It's mostly done with construction, only needs a few of the detail pieces.
It was originally based on an early Prussian/German type zeppelin, but the more I messed with it the more fantastic it became. Hey, it's a gaming piece. So sue me.
These pictures show it prior to priming, hanging from a tree in my front yard. The hooks are so that we can hang it (and others) from the pegboard inserted into Fludogg's basement ceiling in lieu of drop-ceiling panels.
It's over 2 feet long, BTW, so the undercar can hold a good many minis... it's over a foot long and at least 4 or 5 inches wide.
Attachments
ledded
Herder of monkies
Okay, here's the basic construction details of what's in the pic. I've added more details since, but I'll wait until I get a pic before talking those up. First though, let me give the Major Generals wargaming page props for the construction idea, they inspired me. I'll post the link to it later when I can find it.
It's actually 3 two-liter bottles. I sawed the necks/most of the very bottoms off, making sure that when cutting off the bottoms I left at least a little curve so that they would fit together (after screwing up the first time). Make sure you have 3 compatible bottles also, there isnt exactly any uniformity to these things.
I then glued them together, and filled with expandable spray foam. Whole bunch of things can (and did) go wrong here, but it finally worked out. They are light, but solid as a ROCK when done.
The ribbing is 1/16" balsa strips that were almost exactly the right length. In hindsight, I would have used something different, like styrene plastic hand-round strips or something. See, the wood flexes well enough to fit over the rounded ends nicely, but no glue I could find would hold them on the ends before the flex of the wood made them pop up. So with a bunch of fiddling, rubber-banding, and re-gluing I got them to stay down but made an ugly mess of it. Oh well, it's a wargaming piece, not a museum piece, right? (Plus, as you can probably tell from how crooked and nasty the undercarriage is cut, I did some of this work after having been out for a few drinks, so it aint exactly, um, professional ). Anyway, it's a starter piece that I experimented with; I have a few more that I'm going to slap together in the near future.
Built the undercarriage out of foamcore and scrap basswoord/balsa, completely scratch-built the engines out of wooden junk I found at Hobby Lobby (since I couldnt EVER find any toys or otherwise that would work). Used thin coathanger wires to drill into the wooden engines and the foam-filled balloon and then glued into place. Used a bit thicker coathanger wire to make the unattractive but necessary loops on top, and to secure the undercarriage. The foam inside make mounting the wire inside easy and strong with a little decent glue while allowing it to maintain lightness and a non-deformable shape.
The fins are made of plasticard and glued into grooves I cut into the dirigible with my trusty hot-knife (it's like a soldering iron, but with all kinds of different tips that screw in for doing all kinds of projects... the thing is beautiful, it cuts through plastic and foamcore like butter without dulling and without using any pressure at all and comes with soldering, xacto knife, iron on transfer, leather tooling, wood burning, and plastic cutting tips).
What I am adding is a few portholes to the side of the dirigible, clear plastic bubble on the front for the pilot to see through, and a small crows nest/turrent on top for a mini (or maybe two if their base is small enough) to be on lookout for those pesky air pirates to come screaming out of the sky hoping to board topside. Also, near the rear of the top I am adding some smoke-stacks made of brass rod and then some removable "smoke" like the fire/smoke terrain posted in above pics, because this bad boy is steam powered.
Eventually it will be used with some massive steamjacks made out of 12" toys, smaller steamtanks, and tons of steampunk/VSF/Victorian minis that we have (IK Warmachine, Foundry Victorians, etc). Boilers and swords and cannons and mages, oh my.
The fun thing is that it doesnt mount on a table stand like every other one I've seen does... we replaced ceiling tiles at Fludogg's house with pegboard, so we can hang them at varying heights from the ceiling (we're still working that out, but the initial crude coathanger version works just fine for now).
The next zeppelin in this line? Armor plated with cannon ports on the sides, all patches and rivets and nasty-dark piratey coolness.
Oh, almost forgot... those two goofy hooks at the back of the undercarriage that hang there for no apparent reason? Yeah, those are tail hooks small attack/scout biplanes for long range reconaissance and transportation of adventurers into unknown lands. Also can be used to tow another ship, carry extra cargo, etc.
It's actually 3 two-liter bottles. I sawed the necks/most of the very bottoms off, making sure that when cutting off the bottoms I left at least a little curve so that they would fit together (after screwing up the first time). Make sure you have 3 compatible bottles also, there isnt exactly any uniformity to these things.
I then glued them together, and filled with expandable spray foam. Whole bunch of things can (and did) go wrong here, but it finally worked out. They are light, but solid as a ROCK when done.
The ribbing is 1/16" balsa strips that were almost exactly the right length. In hindsight, I would have used something different, like styrene plastic hand-round strips or something. See, the wood flexes well enough to fit over the rounded ends nicely, but no glue I could find would hold them on the ends before the flex of the wood made them pop up. So with a bunch of fiddling, rubber-banding, and re-gluing I got them to stay down but made an ugly mess of it. Oh well, it's a wargaming piece, not a museum piece, right? (Plus, as you can probably tell from how crooked and nasty the undercarriage is cut, I did some of this work after having been out for a few drinks, so it aint exactly, um, professional
). Anyway, it's a starter piece that I experimented with; I have a few more that I'm going to slap together in the near future.Built the undercarriage out of foamcore and scrap basswoord/balsa, completely scratch-built the engines out of wooden junk I found at Hobby Lobby (since I couldnt EVER find any toys or otherwise that would work). Used thin coathanger wires to drill into the wooden engines and the foam-filled balloon and then glued into place. Used a bit thicker coathanger wire to make the unattractive but necessary loops on top, and to secure the undercarriage. The foam inside make mounting the wire inside easy and strong with a little decent glue while allowing it to maintain lightness and a non-deformable shape.
The fins are made of plasticard and glued into grooves I cut into the dirigible with my trusty hot-knife (it's like a soldering iron, but with all kinds of different tips that screw in for doing all kinds of projects... the thing is beautiful, it cuts through plastic and foamcore like butter without dulling and without using any pressure at all and comes with soldering, xacto knife, iron on transfer, leather tooling, wood burning, and plastic cutting tips).
What I am adding is a few portholes to the side of the dirigible, clear plastic bubble on the front for the pilot to see through, and a small crows nest/turrent on top for a mini (or maybe two if their base is small enough) to be on lookout for those pesky air pirates to come screaming out of the sky hoping to board topside. Also, near the rear of the top I am adding some smoke-stacks made of brass rod and then some removable "smoke" like the fire/smoke terrain posted in above pics, because this bad boy is steam powered.
Eventually it will be used with some massive steamjacks made out of 12" toys, smaller steamtanks, and tons of steampunk/VSF/Victorian minis that we have (IK Warmachine, Foundry Victorians, etc). Boilers and swords and cannons and mages, oh my.
The fun thing is that it doesnt mount on a table stand like every other one I've seen does... we replaced ceiling tiles at Fludogg's house with pegboard, so we can hang them at varying heights from the ceiling (we're still working that out, but the initial crude coathanger version works just fine for now).
The next zeppelin in this line? Armor plated with cannon ports on the sides, all patches and rivets and nasty-dark piratey coolness.
Oh, almost forgot... those two goofy hooks at the back of the undercarriage that hang there for no apparent reason? Yeah, those are tail hooks small attack/scout biplanes for long range reconaissance and transportation of adventurers into unknown lands. Also can be used to tow another ship, carry extra cargo, etc.
ledded
Herder of monkies
pogre said:
Heh. I've got a table of 1/48 biplanes ready for paint. Actually, 4 or 5 ready, and 2 in various stages of being put together. Of course, I had to go for the funkier looking ones for our game, like the wire-framed "pusher" style Havilland DH2's, Bleriot Monoplanes, Fokker Eindecker's, etc. I prefer the 1/48 scale over 1/72 because the size fits so much better with the 28-30mm minis. Heck, I find 1/72 to be just a touch small for the older 25mm minis, and I hate that scale. 1/48 is admittedly a bit big, but because of perspective it looks more "right". If only they would make these models and figs in 1/60...
I'm going to try to finish up the details on the zepp soon and re-prime it, I'll toss on a plane for comparison's sake. Admittedly, it doesnt look as cool as I'd like, however it wil be quite usable for gaming purposes if you suspend a little disbelief (or subscribe to our model of physics
). Plus, I didnt want to try to build a scale-zeppelin that was big enough for model airplanes (even in 1/72 scale) to actually fit inside, because the room isn't really big enough for a 7-foot blimp Real Zeppelins were freakin' huge. Ours are not quite that big.
Ledded,
Gaming with miniatures requires certain adherence to the realities of space, vs. the realities of accurate scales.
I think your Zeppelin is pretty darned cool and equally important... Usable on your game table.
I can't wait to see it painted up in the colors of the Dwarven Empire with an escort of Axe class bi-planes.
(Oh wait, that would be my game...)
Game ON!
Nyrfherdr
Gaming with miniatures requires certain adherence to the realities of space, vs. the realities of accurate scales.
I think your Zeppelin is pretty darned cool and equally important... Usable on your game table.
I can't wait to see it painted up in the colors of the Dwarven Empire with an escort of Axe class bi-planes.
(Oh wait, that would be my game...)
Game ON!
Nyrfherdr
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