Monday 18 July 2011

HMSW Gargantua - Progress so far...

Hi, All!


Forgive me, Wargamers, for I have sinned: It's been two weeks since my last post!
Things have been a bit busy for me the last few days - mainly with a very tiring work schedule and a couple of pretty heavy nights out - so model-making has been a bit slow. Nevertheless, I am pleased to announce that my work on the HMSW Gargantua is back on track.

Here's the latest:
Left: the sculpted front-end and the flywheel, in place at last beneath the rear deck. Right: Rear view of the engine and hull.

By far the slowest part of the project so far has been the front-end of the body. Because of the need to anchor the neck pistons way back inside the body before adding the outer armour, I had to sculpt much of the front from green stuff, rather than just modelling it from board. This was tedious work and really made it hard to feel enthusiastic!

Left top and bottom: close-ups of the deck and fo'c'sle. Coal will eventually be heaped in the open compartment. Right: The rear deck takes shape above the wheel.

My aim this week has been to get the flywheel permanently in place - which required that a great many interior details be finished, painted and glued in first. It seemed that everything I did created a new issue to be resolved before the wheel could be put in. I ran out of materials, too - which didn't help!

Close-ups of the head. A swing-bridge will join the body to the head eventually. Looking through the mouth, you can see through the head to the steps which lead up to the main deck.

The head is still not glued on (it slots onto two of the pistons) and neither is the engine. There's a lot still to do before that happens. And as for the legs... Still being designed! I need to see the final bulk of the body before I can be sure the legs I am planning will look right. But I am confident that things will progess quickly now - most of the really fiddly stuff is out of the way.

Of course, I still have to make ladders, etched window glass, a storage hatch, navigational controls, tannoy system, a lot of armour plating, hand rails, swing bridge, cables, gatling gun, cannons and gun-ports, flags...

Smaller than I originally thought it would be... Only 30cm long.

Oh, yes: nearly forgot...

RIVET COUNT: 1,398!

In other news:
I have confirmed that I will be taking Leadwood to A Call to Arms this year, August 20th-21st, in Wellington. Notorious Greg, Myself and others will be running demo-games of The Rules With No Name through the duration of the convention. It would be great to meet any and all who are interested!

All The Best!

13 comments:

  1. Great scratchbuilding, and the paint job looks really good. The paint job really makes it look like heavy metal.

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  2. Excellent work Colonel. Coming along very nicely.

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  3. Thank you! I'm glad you both like it.

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  4. Crikey! That's an impressive piece of kit. I feel the urge to feed it a sugar lump or something, it almost looks alive. Do keep on with it, I look forward to seeing the final result.

    BTW - It seems I can leave comments here now through the Firefox browser. Google doesn't seem to want to play nicely with any others. Ain't technology wunnerful...

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  5. Good to hear from you, A J! That darned modern newfangled computer stuff! Grrr. We'd be better off with steam power!

    And please, don't feed the animals...

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  6. Continued excellent work Joe. I must admit after doing a bit of research on GASLIGHT and various images of steampowered stuff, including yours I am wondering about having a go at something my self, though I'm likely to start small, and get the proper hang of rivet counting... ;-)

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  7. *Pharaonic*!

    Practically no rivets on 'Lacepunk' contraptions, btw....

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  8. Tis shaping up to be a contraption of rare and ingenious beauty Colonel...I see the hand of Brunel and Stephenson in this masterpiece, bravo.

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  9. Abdul! Still pushing Lacepunk?! OK, OK! I'll think about it!

    Ogilvie - Thank you, Sir. But you're forgetting Bloody Stupid Johnson!

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  10. @ Abdul - Lacepunk! I like it, chaps in tricorne hats, big wigs and contraptions, plus beasties - great links, - more possibilities with GASLIGHT rules perhaps and I'd get to use my pirates too :-). thanks Scott

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  11. A 'royal' coach could be a good, if expensive, source of 'rococo' decoration for a 'Lacepunk' contraption. Maybe such baroque sculpts are available as spare pieces for ship modelers?

    For those intrigued by Lacepunk (and Lace Wars 'Fantasy'): link.

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  12. Breathtaking - truly breathtaking. Very well done and thank you for sharing your work-in-progress.

    Tony
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

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  13. Thanks, Tony! The work continues... Another 138 rivets so far this evening!

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