More Aerosans

 Having been chastised by friends for only doing a single type of aerosan I had a go at modelling one of the larger types, the NKL-16. Its a bit more rounded than the smaller NKL-26, and I had more fun adding recessed windows, side rails and other details. The model is in the printer now, waiting to see how it comes out.....

Aerosans Done

 I printed out the aerosans a few days ago but then other stuff got in the way. I've just finished them now. For wargames quality vehicles I think they have come out just fine. I need to find some crew figures and probably some clear plastic disks to represent spinning propellers, but for not I'm happy with them.

Aerosans

 So, a chance comment on one of the FB groups this morning had me thinking about Aerosans for my 15mm Winter Skirmish collection. As a result a carefully planned morning was completely diverted into some impromptu 3D modelling. Here's the result - hoping these come off the printer OK in a few hours :)

Not brilliantly detailed (I can paint on what I need), hopefully good enough for the wargames table.

ACW Side Wheelers

 Having worked up a set of 3D models for stern wheel ACW transports I then decided to do the same for side wheelers. This part of the plan was initiated by a chat I had online with a friend in the US who is working on a Mississippi paddle steamer racing game, hence the first ships I made were inspired by steamers such as the Robert E Lee and Natchez, although greatly simplified - all being well they will be making an appearance in his game in due course. The last one I created was a side wheel tinclad gunboat, using the superstructure and casemate of the stern wheeler as a basis. 

Having sorted those I was asked whether they'd work in 1/600. An obvious question and one I should have asked myself since I'm as short of transports in that scale as I am in 1/1200. Step one of finding out was to simply print the 1/1200 stern wheel gunboat in the larger scale - looked good, but the lack of planking detail in the deck was beginning to show. A few hours later I'd figured out how to create a decent planked deck surface and so I applied it to one of the stern wheel transports and the sidewheel gunboat and printed them out last night. They've been in the paint shop and I'm very pleased with the results. 

So now, at very little expense other than a number of hours working 3D packages, printing time and a bottle of resin I have - to be honest - more ACW transports than I know what to do with :) Not that it will stop me tinkering with the models and creating more variants :D

If anyone wants models for themselves I've put them up in a couple of sets on Wargame Vault.

ACW Stern Wheelers

 A few weeks ago I was looking through my 1/1200 ACW naval collection and lamenting on the lack of stern wheel transports that I had. That and a chance conversation with friends on Facebook sent me scurrying to Meshmixer and Microsoft 3D Builder to experiment. A few weeks later and I had seven new models ready to print covering a variety of types including a timberclad gunboat. I just finished painting them up this afternoon.

I also had a go at some unusual types of single wheel ferries. I recall seeing models and pictures of examples in some of the museums we visited during the NWS Memphis-New Orleans holiday of the late 1990s. I'd always fancied having a  few in my collection but up until now I'd not had the chance to do anything about it

I posted these on Facebook earlier and after a few requests I decided to put the stern wheelers up on Wargame Vault if anyone could do with some "targets" for their ACW naval games. The set on VW has the seven different models. 

American Civil War Stern Wheelers 1/1200 - Long Face Games | Wargame Vault

Now to find out if they scale up to 1/600 (I think they'll need additional detailing to work well though). Oh, and some sidewheel passenger ships just entered the paint shop :)

Flatiron Gunboats

 Having had a go at some Victorian gunboats a few weeks ago I thought I'd try my hand at some similar but different types. I decided to knock up some "flatiron" gunboats - so called because they resembled the old style irons used in the period. I've created a couple of types, one short and stumpy, the other a longer type, but both characterised by a single large forward firing gun.

The models were put together in Meshmixer and Microsoft 3D builder (I really must start to learn a more swept up package) and scaled to 1/1200. I'm pretty happy with them and they should be seeing action later this year in my Victorian imagi-nations campaign.

First Turtles, Now a Tortoise

 One of the nice things about havibg a 3D printer is that of you have a sudden urge to have a model of something odd for your wargames table there's a fair chance that someone will have created a 3D model file for it. Last weekend I had a sudden urge to make a Tortoise tank, probably because I caught sight of it mentioned on the Bovington Tank Museum Facebook page. Sur enough there was a free STL file on Thingiverse, so now I have a Tortoise in 15mm :)