Flap flap flap

The devil finds work for idle hands to do and unfortunately, in the ten days wait for a new batch of MDF bases, my gaming butterfly flapped its wings once more.

My love of Star Trek has been well documented on this site (too well documented for many) but my other main passion (both in and out of gaming) has always been airships. 

Airships…!  I know, right?

To be fair, I reckon if you’re going to be a nerd, you might as well go all in.

Anywhoo… I’ve been nipping in and out of the Brigades models Imperial Skies website section for a long now, time surreptitiously looking at airship porn, until, during the aforementioned ten day hiatus I thought …bugger it…buy some, man! I mean it’s the 21st century. It’s time I came out of the, ahem, airship closet.

I’ve only completed a couple of models so far, but I thought I’d brave your scorn and derision and post a few piccies…to test the water. I’m thinking of setting this new gaming genre in and around 1895, twenty years after the Franco Prussian war, in a world where a revanchist 3rd French Republic have doubled down on the one technology in which they currently lead the world. The balloon and the airship. 

First cab off the rank: “The Alsace” an Hercule class airship fielding medium and light guns in side mounted caissons. Powered by twin Serpolet flash boilers she entered service in 1887 and can reach a respectable 40mph. The production run of five was cancelled after the first two were completed, the vessel being effectively obsolete upon entering service. She is depicted in the standard French Aéronautique Militaire colour scheme of the time, the white upper works being necessary to reduce the effects of envelope overheating and excessive gas expansion at altitude. 

“La République” a Rochambeau class airship, sporting two heavy barbette gun positions amidships and a host of medium range guns which are able to produce a formidable broadside. Faster than the Hercule class and with a heavier load out they are the first of the French fleet to use the secret “C” gas, discovered in 1868 by a French scientist.* The gas is very expensive to produce but is not flammable and produces greatly enhanced lift compared to hydrogen.  In 1895 there are four other vessels of this class in service.

“Tigre” a Mistral class Aeroleve. Intelligence received on German aerial advancements suggested a need for a fast interceptor craft, but the small streamlined envelope that went along with this provided insufficient lift to carry any effective armament. The solution was to accept the limited buoyancy but enhance the lifting capacity of the vessel by attaching heavily braced “wings”. In this configuration the ship can reach an astonishing 60mph and is armed with six ripple fired short range explosive rockets.

Static defence balloon number 21. Aerial defences positioned in and around key French cities and along the Franco / German border. The first line of defence they are armed with medium range guns and four short range rocket launchers.

Now for “zee chermans”. Only two so far, but more on the way.

“Brandenburg” a Germania class airship of the Kaiserliche Luftschiffe Truppen. Eschewing the French approach to propulsion, they are powered by Herr Benz’s internal combustion engine and use hydrogen for lift. Armed with a gondola full of medium guns the Germania class ships are the workhorse of the German air fleet and have been adapted for bombing and aether torpedo launching duties.

“Wotan.” Lead and so far only ship of its class. The Wotan may carry marines or a bomb load in addition to its gondola based medium barbettes and dorsal heavy battery.

This model has been heavily adapted from Brigades original using beads from the wife’s craft drawer to make the engine pods and silver sequins for the propeller discs. Tee hee. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention!

I’m already back to producing AWI units now that the bases have turned up but it’s nice to have something else to tinker with and to break up the grind of production line painting, n’est ce pas?

Toodleooh. 

*”C”gas was an early term for Helium. Presumably all of my French crews will speak in amusingly squeaky voices. Lol.

For the want of a nail

AWI production has ground to a halt this week because I’ve run out of bloomin’ 3x3 mdf bases. Doh. Bit of a cock up on the stores front it seems. Fortunately my usually empty diary was filled with a giddy social whirl, which included:

Yet another AWI refight of Hubbardton - this time using Tricorne C&C rules

Plus the almost inevitable win by these lads. Is it possible to achieve a British victory I wonder? Three different rule sets would seem to imply not.

The arrival of «my son the doctor» (has to be said in a potentially offensive Jewish manner - for which I apologise in advance) and his lovely wife. He reaffirmed our old family tradition of him turning up, stripping the fridge, drinking all my favourite pop, then thrashing me horribly in a face to face game using troops that I’ve just spent many months painting. Ruddy smart ass kid. I blame the parents. Oh wait…

My son the doctor rolls up the centre of my line with his light bobs. My loss was so sudden, violent and complete that I somehow neglected to take too many pictures for posterity.

Being France I also had to suffer the agony of La fête des voisines, an annual social occasion in which the inhabitants of our hamlet gather to eat drink and be Mary (I might have got the last bit wrong). Two of the oldest members of the settlement never turn up since twenty years ago they ended up shooting each others cars over a land dispute that’s still not settled. Also not present was the Pradeix strangler -  but that’s a story for another day. 

The inhabitants of Pradeix lieu dit Saint Dizier Leyrenne, sans strangler. I’m on the right, three parts of the table down, next to the shaven headed fruit of my loins. Ughh.

You’ll be pleased to know that despite becoming fearsomely drunk, as an antidote to my crippling social anxiety, I behaved myself well and even sat through twenty minutes of Shamanic drumming by the yurt folks, without comment. 

I’ll give myself another pat on the back for that, I think. 

Toodleooh for now.