Isambard Kingdom Brunel

I came across this new (to me) wargame company selling post-apocolypse/steampunk miniatures and resin vehicles. One of the miniatures was a steampunk version of Isambard Kingdom Brunel - the greatest engineer since Imhotep said to Pharoh, "You know you wanted a really impressive headstone, sire. Well have a butchers at these plans."

Brunel was voted second greatest Briton of all time in a BBC national poll recently (Winston Churchill won).

Brunel University in West London is my dear old alma mater so I had to have this model.



You can find a link to Ramshackle on my sidebar. Well worth a visit.

Victorian Horror

I came across this wonderful new miniature for the SMOG game, painted by Ángel Giráldez, who is extremely good.

The original is here:
http://studiogiraldez.blogspot.com/

I love the SMOG models but they are a non-standard (large) size and I can't face making new terrain so I will have to pass.

Great models though.

The Hun in the Sun

The latest recruit to Jasta Lambshead has come in the post - the Fokker VII.

About 1,700 DVIIs were built in the summer and autumn of 1918 for the Die Fliegertruppen. It gave the hard-pressed German scout pilots a weapon of parity with the Camels, SEFas and Spads of the French and British air forces.

Wings of War - Battle Report

The Orientation Flight

Lt Algernon Smythe of the RFC was given the task of taking Capt Cornetto, a representative of the Aeronautica del Regio Eserciti, on a familiarisation flight over the Western Front. Smythe was of the Devonshire Smythes from Dartmoor, a place of few women and many sheep (and a hound).

Smythe flew his trusty Sopwith Camel while Cornetto insisted on using his Spad XIII, which was painted in the colours of the Aeronautica.

At 14.21 hours, Smyth spotted two dots approaching from the east. These resolved into a Roland two seater reconnaissance escorted by one of the new Fokker scouts. Smythe immediately waggled his wings and his moustache to get Cornettos attention and signalled his intention to attack.



Karl Ritter Von Schmidt, in the Fokker VII, noticing the approaching scouts, signalled to the Roland to close up on his fighter.


The two flights closed rapidly and Smythe opened fire, initially at too long a range, but soon fire from the Fokker fighter ripped through his wings. Cornetto slid around to the right flank.

The photo at left shows the control boards for the allied scouts. Note the system of three manouvre cards that are preselected for each turn. These must be used in order, simultaneously for all planes with simultaneous firing coming after each phase.

The intial exchange of fire was disastrous for the allies. The Camel took a hit in the rudder preventing right turns (the rotary engined Camel's party trick) and its guns jammed (see counters). the Spad took an engine hit that caused it to play at least one mandatary stall card each turn.

The position of the counters mark when special effects, such as jammed guns, can be removed.










The photo shows the position of the planes at the end of the turn. Note how the manouvre cards are used to 'fly' the planes.


Each plane has its own set of manoeuvre cards that show different distances, turn abilities and so on. The plastic bases have firing arcs on and other info.






The planes go into tight banks to dogfight with each other.


After another turn of three manoeuvre phases, the allied scouts have outmanouvred the dastardly Hun and are on their tails.


The Camel rakes the Fokker VII to no obvious effect. Fire from the Spad killed the Roland's observer. However, the Fokker snapped a long range shot at the Spad. Von Schmidt had spent his boyhood hunting boar in the Black Forest and showed himself again to be a skillfull marksman. There was a large bang and Cornetto's Spad fell out of the sky trailing black smoke.

In game turns, I had drawn a 'sudden death' damage card (see above photo) for the Spad.


Poor old Smythe was left to fight on alone. Army Intelligence had assured the RFC that the new Fokker was a poor piece of work. Smythe begged to differ when Schmidt made a tight Immelman turn and closed in on his rear, shooting holes in the Camel.






Schmidt was now in a 'tailing' position (can rearrange his manouvre cards) and followed the Camel firing all the time (its damagesum was starting to get close to the the total structure points of the machine).

Smythe took a pot at the Roland which had wandered out in front of his guns but both his Vickers jammed - again!







Smythe twisted and turned to stay out of the Fokker's twin Spandeau machine guns. In doing so, he had to accept hits from the Roland's single gun.




Finally, Smyth managed to disengage and flee.





The Camel limped back to the airfield. Smythe landed, taxied to the hanger and switched his engine off. The silence was only broken by his top wing collapsing.

Some time later he was fortifying his nerves with a snifter in the mess when the door flew open and in mached Cornetto with a blond on one arm, a brunette on the other, and a redhead following with his cap.

Apparently, he had crash landed on top of a detachment of the women's auxiliary balloon corps.

It was, Smyth reflected, going to be a long war.



I enjoyed this game greatly even though I lost (congrats to Shaun). The ergonomics are well thought out and slick. Cards are used for manouvre and damage - no dice needed. The battle took less than an hour. It would play well with multiple planes and multiple players.

Highly addictive.

Steampunk Airship Carrier

I am toying with an airship carrier for my next 'Storming' steampunk story.

I came across this piccy of a wonderful model on the internet but I couldn't find its provenance.

Does anyone recognise it?

ELYSIAN TAUROS VENATOR - On A Budget

Forge World have advertised a new model for their upcoming campaign book which will apparently feature Elysians. This very nice model costs £34 plus postage, which is good value for money so if you want a single display model or are a wargamer who is not on a budget then go ahead.

However, a squadron of three will cost somewhere in the region of £120 and that's a lot. So I asked myself if there are any alternatives.
My first stopping point for a resin 40K scale vehicle at a good price is Old Crow. Old Crow make good quality, extremely well finished resin and metal kits. They are simpler than Forge World, and a great deal easier to make, but are considerably cheaper.

Above is an Old Crow Goanna Scout and it costs the princely price of £7 so the total cost of a squadron plus P&P is about £25.


This is a slingshot AFV and it comes with a turret for £9


Old Crow models are modular so, for example, you can change the back wheels for tracks at no extra charge.


You can also buy a huge range of options from Old Crow. This is a Slingshot with missile launcher.


There are a large range of turrets, guns, stowage, hatches, drivers etc available. The turret above costs £4, for example.

A squadron of Old Crow 'Venators' would set you back about £45 t0 £50 all in.



Another alternative is the kitbash. You should be able to pick up one of these for a fiver.
or a tenner for the above.


Finally, the cheapest option of all. I picked up these 28ml (more or less) models for £2.99, or a quid each.

Politics of Fear

The British Government has started arresting people on the street for taking photographs under their all pervading 'terrorism programme'. Photographing in public is completely legal but photographers are still being harassed.

We recently had a mass photography session in Trafalgar Square. I couldn't make that so I took my freedom in my hands and photgraphed Mick's Plaice, a fish and chip shop in Chatham High Street.

Recently, Labour's stasi arrested a photgrapher under the terrorism act for photgraphing this very chip shop. Osama bin Laden sits in his office in the Pakastani Intelligence building plotting to blow up a Chatham fish and chip shop? That'll bring the western world to its knees.

Actually it's a moot point whether Al Quada terrorists would make it alive up Chatham High Street. This is the city that gave the word chav to modern popular culture.