Someone's rockin' my steamboat - 2

On to the next stage, assembling the paddle wheel. The Roi des Belges and other steamboats of this era often had large rectangular paddle-boxes over the stern wheels, which simplifies things from a modelling perspective. Everything within the box doesn't have to be constructed; only the pertinent parts that show.

The picture below shows the deckhouses in place and the start of the paddle wheel assembly. I took a thick card spool that once held carton sealing tape, cut a half inch piece from it then divided it into two half-inch segments. Two short lengths of wooden strip form the main spokes with a length of dowel between them as the axle.

The whole was glued between the two lengths of basswood projecting from the main deck. Note the upward bias of the wheel segments to the stern.

Short lengths of wood strip made the paddles themselves. I used a strong impact adhesive to glue these in place.

The shot below shows the general effect, with District Commissioner Carstairs providing a sense of scale.

Tomorrow should see me onto the next stage - constructing the paddle box and the upper deck.

Someone's rockin' my steamboat - 1

On now to a model of a quintessential feature of most Colonial-era gaming - the steamboat. I've long had plans in mind for a vessel based on the Roi des Belges, a Congo River steamer of the 1880's-early 1900's. Typical of her type, she was a stern-wheeler and had a main deck, upper deck and a pilot house. In the early 1890's she was commanded by Joseph Conrad, who used his experiences aboard to write the novel Heart of Darkness, a book which later served as the basis for the movie Apocalypse Now.

I began by making a template from cereal box card, which served to get consistent shapes for the hull and main deck. The hull is 7" long by 3" wide, and cut from .5" foamcore, giving the model a good freeboard. The deck is cut from 1/16th inch basswood which gives a durable playing surface for figures to stand upon. Planning ahead always helps. In this case the overall length of the basswood deck is 9", but I cut out a 2" rectangle from the stern portion as shown, leaving a .5" wide strip on either side. This is where the paddlewheel will sit.


I wanted a smooth finish to the sides of the hull, as well as a slight lip above deck level. For this I used more cereal box card, since it's thin and flexible, gluing it to the bows and sides and wrapping it around the stern. Ordinary pins served to keep it in place while the glue dried.

In the next stage I added two narrow strips of card along the sides, since the Roi des Belges featured something very similar. Holes were then drilled through the card, basswood and foamcore, giving a good solid foundation for mini-dowels which will support the upper deck. Five each side is quite enough for this job, and allows room to stand five or so 25-28mm figures on 2 pence piece bases.

Once all was dry I painted the deck a basic tan color and built two small deckhouses from foamcore. Thin card cut to shape and painted form the doors and windows. I cut louvers in the windows since these were a feature of steamboats of this time. The deckhouses will be glued onto the areas of bare basswood.

Although the Roi des Belges seems to be painted quite a dark color (indeterminate in black and white photos of course), I chose a spinach and cream color scheme, as it was one fairly typical of Victorian times.

Next up, constructing the paddlewheel and on to the upper deck.

Gaming foliage 2

And so to the final stages of making the foliage. I did mention the need for fresh-ground coffee in the previous post. This is where it comes into play! Clarence Harrison of Quindia Studios uses coffee grounds for ground coverage to good effect. I follow his example, as shown below.

This picture shows the spackle spread on the metal disks, the sand applied earlier giving it a keyed surface to grip. I gave the spackle a light spray of water from a plant mister then sprinkled the coffee grounds heavily on top and allowed the lot to dry. As some of the grounds were still loose after this, I followed up by giving the whole another spray, this time with diluted PVA with some yellow and tan acrylic paint mixed in. This fixes the loose grounds in place, covers any white patches of spackle showing through, and adds a more natural shading to the basic green color of the plastic plant strands. The edges of the disks were then painted a dun earth color to match my gaming surface.

Of course, plants in the wild don't exist in a vacuum: Other plants tend to compete for the same space. Once all was dry, I added bits and pieces of Spanish and reindeer mosses to the bases, along with small stones. The ferns were then bent outward to give a more natural pose.

The picture below shows scale compared to a Wargames Foundry figure. Even four bases of the foliage creates enough cover to hide a nasty surprise or two for gamers. On the whole I'm rather pleased with the result. It's miles better than my earlier attempt, and even with drying speed factored in, still took little time to make.

Next up, my steamboat project gets under way.

Gaming foliage 1

Some weeks ago I made some terrain pieces taken from a dollar store buy. Floral Garden is a rather unprepossessing range of interior decor, typical of the "Made in China" crap flooding the markets these days. Even so, it does have merits.

Typically it comes as a kind of plastic houseplant with several strands attached to a central stalk by a simple plug-in method. Remove the strands and glue to a suitable base and hey presto - scale vegetation for the wargames table.

The term suitable base is the key here; the first batch of herbage I made I set on card, and it didn't come up to scratch. The card warped after the spackle basing was applied. So, back to the drawing board, and I think I've cracked the problem.

Pictured are the component parts of this new project. The metal disks are the end caps from a type of frozen fruit juice concentrate that comes in card tubes. I saw these ages ago and thought they'd come in handy one day. Of course, I didn't quite know what they would prove useful for, but since when has that stopped a model-maker from accumulating bits and bobs on the off chance?

The victim - er, basis for the foliage will be the potted plant, which caught my eye as it has fern-like leaves suitable for tropical/equatorial Africa. The main tool for the transformation will be the hot glue gun.

Once all the strands are removed, I wound up with a pile of thirteen pieces.

Getting to work with the hot glue gun, within a few minutes I had the result shown above. One thing to note (and you may already know this); hot glue isn't the strongest adhesive around. It does have the advantage of setting quickly, especially if the surface the glue is squirted on is cold, like the disks. The trick here is to poke the plastic stalks into the blob of glue and work quickly before it hardens.

A side-on view, showing how effective these pieces are already at blocking line-of-sight.

And on to the next stage, applying a layer of sand to the disks to give a keyed surface for the spackle to grip to. I use the interior decor sand available at most hobby stores. It comes in thin plastic bags, so to avoid splits and spills I transfer it to old peanut jars, like that shown. Use old newspaper or plastic sheets to cover the work area. This stage can get very messy!

I spread a good dollop of PVA/Gorilla glue around the disks and up the stalks a little ways, using a wet fingertip to help work it into position. Usually I'd dilute the PVA with water, but as the hot glue forms a relatively weak bond I wanted to be sure of a stronger hold on the strands. Be sure to cover the edges of the discs. Allow everything to set before moving on to the next stage. Have a cup of fresh ground coffee - you'll need it.

New recruits!

Thanks to a purchase on eBay, I now have a few new recruits for my Africa Station campaign setting.

Now, we know there's something in there...

The stalwart fellows shown above are Wargames Foundry from their Darkest Africa range, mostly from pack DA 3/8 - Allied tribal musketmen equipped with obsolete firearms, and are fresh off the painting block. These are versatile figures which can serve as tribesmen, poorly-equipped askari, escorts for exploration or hunting parties, guards for a civilian commercial concern, deserters from a Colonizing power's askari force, bandits, and many things besides.

I'm going to use them as a band of native mercenaries, headed by Sunny N'sher (the mean-looking guy in red). Guns for hire, they serve any who can pay - or could work on their own agenda...

I also picked up a military medical team and a number of camp cookhouse figures from the same lot. While not fighting troops per se, they will add color to the tabletop scene. Some rules sets allow for medical attention on wounded troops. A glance at the Sharp Practice rules from Too Fat Lardies shows that "Big Men" can be saved by medical attention to serve and fight again another day. Having an actual aid station on the table gives an objective to be reached - or blocked by an enemy.

A little late, but -

A Happy Thanksgiving to all.

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On the modelling front, I'm hoping to start work on a steamboat or two, plus I have a project in mind for an aerial gunboat, in the shape of the Aphid-class from Space: 1889. Gaming-wise, I may even be able to clear my table of clutter and try out the Sharp Practice rules, recently purchased from those fine chaps at Too Fat Lardies.

Whispering grass

Fall being upon us with a vengeance, I'm turning the season to advantage by using some of Nature's bounty. I decided to experiment with making a batch of elephant grass to fill up the terrain for Africa Station. The strands of grass are the tough needles from a species of pine that grows around here. As the season advances these can be gathered up by the bushel.

A clump of the grass, with some new bases to the fore awaiting spackling.

These hunters are wary as they approach the dense cover.

The foliage is treated to a long soak in Pledge/Future/Klear polish and allowed to dry. It's then stuck to card bases using a hot glue gun, before the bases are covered with thinned down spackle with a bit of PVA mixed in. I'd prefer to use something like 1/8th inch MDF or mounting board, but this is by way of a trial run. While the mix is wet, I scatter sand over the lot and leave to stand. Once all is dry, I use a plant mister to spray the lot with thinned PVA containing some yellow acrylic paint mixed into the water to get that dry look. This helps fix the sand scatter in place and further toughens the needles.

It's surprising how few of these stands are needed to block lines of sight on the table and break up the emptiness in general.

Those green plants beyond the hunters are from a plastic plant found in dollar stores. As interior decor they're pretty naff, but pull the separate plastic stems from the main trunk and you get a nice bunch of usable foliage. I follow the same method for the grass by fixing them to the bases using hot glue before layering on the spackle and so on.

The lone tree in the middle is another experiment, this time using a suitable shaped twig and some medium green Woodland Scenics tree material. I found the stuff to be crumbly and difficult to work with, so resorted to using a rough oval section of mesh cut from a used fabric softener sheet used in tumble dryers. Attaching the mesh to the top using hot glue, I covered it with thinned PVA and applied the tree material a bit at a time. It took a while to do and was rather fiddly. Eventually I got a reasonable result, but I'm not sure I want to try making many more like it.

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I see from the counter that the number of visits to this blog has reached over 2,500. My thanks to all who stop by, and I hope you find something useful here.

Marching in, travel-worn but alive.

A sizable percentage of my Darkest Africa collection made it across the Pond this week. These lads were well-packed and, apart from a few abrasions, arrived sound in wind and limb.

The Colonel looks on with interest from the veranda as the troops parade.

The exception - and Murphy's Law says there has to be one - is the African warriors. Barely one shield and spear in two survived still attached to its bearer (the picture below shows the sorry pile alongside the tribesmen) and a couple of bases were broken. Easily fixed.

Azande tribal warriors to the fore, German Seebattalion to rear left and Stalwart British Tommies to rear right. Colonial house and terrain scratch-built - and not entirely finished.

Okay, I hold up my hand and say I used cyanoacrylic/ superglue for the sake of quickness, but I'm loathe to spend too much of my time holding a shield and spear together until the glue decides to set. Superglue has its uses, but doesn't make for a strong bond. I am open to an alternative, and hear good things about epoxy adhesives. Would anyone care to give a recommendation?

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The village

After the successful trial of the new thatching method used on the colonial house I decided to try it out on the African huts. I think the result is worthwhile.

Chief Bubbalazi & Entourage

An overview of the village

A wash of Vallejo sepia ink is applied to the thatch once the basic yellowish paint job is dry. I borrowed a technique from model railroad builders and diluted the ink in alcohol - the rubbing variety found in dollar stores, that is. Use a ratio of around 30 drops alcohol to one of ink. It gives an even coat and the alcohol evaporates completely leaving no residue but the ink. A word of advice - work in a ventilated area and leave no naked flames or other sources of combustion around when doing this!