The reader may be amused when I write that I primed this model about a year ago, and that it has gone away with me on vacation with every intent to paint it at least twice, but I could not decide upon the colour scheme.
The problem I had was that the Royal Navy (of which Britain's fledgling Aerial Service is part) have peacetime and wartime livery for Her Majesty's Ships. Peacetime vessels are painted with black hulls and buff upper works, while wartime paint is a mid-to-light grey.
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| Ironclad Aerial Launch - pictured are two RAFM Historicals for scale. |
In the end, I went with a very dark grey hull with light grey upperworks, adhering as it were to the wartime colours in the peacetime scheme. I don't know why, but it works for me. I also found some vertical pipe-stands used in some of our old 25mm Sky Galleons of Mars games from the 1990's, one of which made for a handy flying stand.
This is a resin-cast model that is a joy to assemble. There were almost no bubbles in the resin, and they were confined to the underside of the deck. Nicely detailed with just the right amount of rivets. It does weight a respectable amount, and I'm probably going to add a larger base to the pipe-stand supporting it.
Armament consists of a single 25mm Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon miniature by Richard Houston - now available again from The Virtual Armchair General. This is labelled as "37mm" which translates to the 1-lbr HRC in Soldier's Companion. The weapon is swappable with other miniatures, such as a Nordenfelt or Gardner gun or even a rocket tube, which would make for quite a nasty surpise for a wooden, Martian ship.
Let that be a lesson to the three-toed, yellow pongos...
- finis -
We are not worthy
ReplyDeleteNot by me, though - thank Ironclad. Lovely model. That, plus Testor's camouflage grey, straight out the tin, doing the work for me.
DeleteVery nice indeed, even if it is the wrong scale :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're enviously,
etc
Wrong scale? Oh, no old son, not by a long chalk. We get 25mm from Featherstone, who received it from St. Paul. 28mm is just a new twist on an old gospel. : )
ReplyDeletepretty nice blog, following :)
ReplyDeleteThanks again Gents, especially Oerjan A. who pointed out my HRC is a 1-lbr calibre and not a 3-lbr. If anyone knows where I can find a casting of the 3-Lbr Hotchkiss revolving canon, I would appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteFeast to my eyes!
ReplyDeleteI really love to see that there is other aerial steamers out there. =)
I got one myself and it will be painted for the upcoming summer gaming convention. At the moment I am giving my Martian soil new colours. My almost dead blogg will rise again....Mars 1889!
But as I said, yours are a feast for my eyes!
Galdarbjelke, very kind of you to say. I'm pleased to help inspire you, as the reverse is also true - I take inspiration from blogs like yours and Clive's and DLI's.
ReplyDeleteAh, we happy, happy few!
I am honoured!
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