OK, I've been silent long enough, so it's time for a plan that might actually force me to progress stuff.
The silence isn't due to anything in particular; there have been some health issues and bereavements to be sure, but they're more in the nature of excuses than reasons. I've spread myself thinly over several projects (with their own blog pages), all of which have suffered from scope creep (naturally), which has also not helped. So bullets need to be bit, knots cut and so on.
So here goes as far as my Martian project is concerned. Here's a list of things I need to move along far enough to publish something interesting / meaningful / out-of-personal-vanity.
1) Go public on my New Improved™ figure basing methodology
2) For foot units, show the conversion process and finalised units (once finished ...)
3) Artillery - OK this does need more work, but at least I'm happy with the basing basics.
4) I still need to finalise workable basing for my Gashant cavalry. This needs some consideration of the effect of leverage on composite bases. Sounds impressive, huh? Nah, but some experimentation required. I also need to get happy with painting schemes.
5) Ruumet Breehrs needed for transportation. Show the workings.
6) Jolly green giants. Get to a stage where I can share some photos.
7) Arak. OK this is one of the project creep thingies, but so kewl! Based on the Khurasan Miniatures Blackpowder Sci Fi range here.
8) Hullcutter - this really has been gathering dust for a year or two as I went down the wrong path on the panelling. I probably need to strip/sand this back and start again.
OK, so there's a list of things that need doing. All I need to do now is to start progressing them!
Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2019!
Tuesday, 1 January 2019
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Hullcutter III
(This post was actually drafted many months ago, and somehow languished as a draft. Things have moved on since then, but I have decided to publish this unedited as it shows a few solutions in progress. More to follow soon!)
Success! I have managed to deal with several of the headaches.
1) I think I've cracked how to make the ram and keel. First I picked up a length of 3mm balsa wood. These are 10cm/4" wide so I cut three 10cm squares and stuck them together (alternating direction of the grain) with evenly spread white glue. Once dry I had a fairly sturdy block 10cm square and about 1cm thick, which was still surprisingly light.
The tricky part was then to get the shape of the ram. 10cm on a side was limiting, but rotating it through about 30° gave me about the length and shape I needed, and I drew the approximate shape of the ram onto 5mm gridded paper. Then I photocopied my scribbles and glued it to one of the faces of my block. I also stuck some blank paper onto the other face, to add some solidity to the piece. I left it all for about 24 hours to set, and cut along the guidelines with a fret saw, which almost cut through too easily. I had been dreading the sawing, but it actually went off very well. To be honest, the finished result of the 10cm x 10cm felt a little small for his vessel, so I tried a second version on 10cm x 15cm and that seemed to work better. The picture here shows both paper plans.
The exposed edges of the balsa laminate was still quite soft in places, so I sealed the exposed surfaces with some paper and white glue. That should give a smooth and solid finish, and also camouflage some of my less impressive sawing.
The rear keel was glued onto the bottom of the rear drag deck, and I have something that actually looks the part of a Hullcutter!
As I mentioned, the first attempt worked well but it felt like it was bit on the small size. For the second attempt the plan on the 10cm x 15cm scale and went much faster. Now the ram/prow is tall enough to give some headroom to crew on the deck should they fly just beneath another vessel - the prow might hit the other vessel but at least the crew won't be scraped off the deck!
2) Flying stand. Only time will tell how sturdy this is, but it's working so far.
I had to dismantle some of the decks and start again, firstly cutting holes to take the rods - or at least the housings for them. I also cut out a 1cm notch on the bow to take the ram.
I bought four 20mm x 6mm barrel nuts that will take a 5mm rod with an OK amount of clearance. I capped two of them off with a small piece of MDF to build the length nearer the 30mm thickness of the polystyrene. These were then inserted into holes drilled/excavated in the underside of the ship by partly-filling the excavated hole with filler, and pressing the nut into this. Once dry these are nicely seated, and I built the assembly up to be flush with the polystyrene by adding some holed balsa wood which will also glue nicely to the deck when glued back on.
For the base, I cut out two pieces of MDF* and drilled out two holes for the screws that would hold the barrel nuts - larger on the lower level so that the retaining screw would countersink nicely. I also drilled and filed holes through the ram and keel to align with the interior barrel nuts. Next, I cut some 5mm hardwood dowel to size (longer for the bow than for the stern) and inserted it dry so that I can dismount the model if I need to. It is a little wobbly, so I may replace the wooden dowel with mild steel ones - 5mm should be easy to find if I need it, but at least I can drill/file out a broken wooden dowel at need.
* This was before learning of the health horrors of MDF dust. The next time I cut, file or sand MDF it will be outdoors with a mask on!
Monday, 15 June 2015
Some Notes on Hill Martians
The Hill Martian tribes that surround
the city state of Mylarkt fall into two broad categories.
Those of the Nilosyrtis Hills and
Neith Steppes are fully nomadic, dependent upon their gashants to move the
vast distances between suitable grazing and only occasionally involved in some
temporary agriculture. Most of their needs are met from their herds of gashants
and the occasional stand of fnuuk. Water and other liquids tend to be derived
from plants which absorb and store the limited moisture available from the air
and subsoil.
Those of the
Meroe Badlands are largely sedentary and live in villages, raising crops and
trading (and sometimes raiding) between communities. Their pastoralism is still
semi-nomadic, with youths moving the herds between the limited pasturage in the
badlands, similar to seasonal transhumance movements on Earth.
Their
agriculture uses some very water-efficient techniques, with much of their water
coming from condensation on natural features. These “Wind Bounty” sites are
features that channel the humid wind coming up from the grand canal through
gorges or tunnels that widen suddenly causing the air to chill and the water vapour
to condense into small droplets that gather on the surface of cavern walls.
This water gradually filters into underground cisterns that in turn feed
irrigation and drinking water networks (the two are typically kept separate)
via various natural filtration systems. Most
of the sites look to be quite natural, but this seems unlikely given the very
similar arrangements of underground cisterns and filtration ponds at different
sites. Several Terran scientists are very keen to study these wonders of water
collection, but the custodians are understandably reluctant to allow strangers
to poke around in their life-supporting water and so their exact provenance and
the detail of their design remain mysteries.
Both types of nomad herd gashants
as their principal source of meat and transport, with wocnid and wild gashants
being hunted. Ganz willoi are typically hunted by children, although some
sedentary tribes have been able to domesticate them to some extent. Bush
Monkeys are looked on as a nuisance due to their tendency to enter settlements at
night, and they driven off or killed where possible. Their meat is taboo, being
seen as distant relatives of Hill Martians cursed by the gods for some misdeed in the past (the Nepenthi name for them translates
as “unfinished”), but their spikes are often used when making weapons and
armour. Teshuwaan are usually attacked on sight due to the threat they present to
the gashant herds, and their meat is prized twice over as it both saves the
life of a herd animal and delays the need to slaughter one for food.
As in Space:1889 canon, the
models for these societies are North American natives. My ideas for the
steppe-dwellers are based on Souian cultures, while those for those of the Meroe Badlands
come from the Pueblo Indians and others from the South West. In both cases they are
derivatives, and are certainly not intended to be direct copies.
Monday, 1 June 2015
Ewart's PIFFers - Part I
Politically,
Mylarkt has a strong mercantile culture, but also strong regional nobility. The
nobles and merchants are always vying for power, and if a strong prince can
avoid capture by either set of interests he can be assured of the strong
backing of one against the other, allowing to him to set his own agenda.
Unfortunately for the merchants of Mylarkt, Prince Ilsanoor XV is more
interested in hunting than budgeting, and so they are fighting a loss of
influence to the noble houses.
They have, however, managed one policy change that has worked to their advantage. The bulk of the army of Mylarkt is a hereditary force that is heavily based on tradition and upon reinforcement from noble houses in times of emergency. The state also hires large number of Hill Martian mounted mercenaries to patrol the state’s borders with other Hill Martian tribes. But there have always been substantial number of mercenaries supplied by Canal Martians. These have traditionally been a mixture of cutthroats and ne’er-do-wells from outside the hereditary system whose main duty has been to garrison unpopular locations and collect overdue taxes. The Guild of Merchants petitioned the Prince to disband some of these companies and replace them with mercenary troops trained along the Earth model. They sold this on the basis that a) it could be done in such a way to curry favour with the earthmen at Syrtis Major, b) that it would allow them to learn more about how the red men fought so that they could better oppose them and c) that the merchants would pay for it. Argument c) swung it. The unspoken argument d) was that the merchants hoped to be able to gain effective control of these new troops as a counter to the nobles, but that passed the Prince and the nobles by at the early stages.
When Ilsanoor’s advisers approached the British Ambassador, Sir Henry Baird, for assistance he was only too happy to pass this on to HMG. The plan was to raise a battalion of infantry with a short battery of artillery. The Prince made it clear that the officers could not be seen to be serving the Queen, but would have to be answerable to him. HMG quite understood, naturally, and was only too willing to help build a strong, dependent ally on their border and one which also lay on the important trade route with the Boreosyrtis League. They at once proposed to procure the good offices of a British subject who would surely be exactly what Prince Ilsanoor wanted.
Their gaze fell upon Captain William E. Ewart of the Kings Own Borderers, lately serving with 2/3 Martian Infantry (Avenel Rifles) with the brevet rank of Major. Captain Ewart had recently come under something of a cloud, having fallen foul of his Commanding Officer, the Horse Guards and the Viceroy over a matter concerning a Steppe Tiger skin. Or, more accurately, over the press reports of a young Martian “Ochre Lady” found in the presence of Captain Ewart, both in a somewhat désabillé state, on said animal skin. The Queen was not amused, naturally. However even his worst detractors admitted that Ewart was an excellent officer, with a good appreciation of the handling of Martian troops. He also spoke excellent Parhooni which one can only surmise had something to do with the Ochre Lady.
In any case, Ewart was persuaded to resign his commission before the Queen revoked it (and with promise that he would be kept on half pay on the unofficial list for unspecified services to HMG). He was quickly despatched to Mylarkt to prevent any further fallout over the tiger-skin affair, and was duly appointed as First Sword of the Prince Ilsanoor Field Force, which Ewart took great delight in calling his PIFFers.
Liberally paraphrased from “A
year with Ewart’s PIFFers” by Capt. J.R. Newton ret’d with the kind permission
of the author's widow.
They have, however, managed one policy change that has worked to their advantage. The bulk of the army of Mylarkt is a hereditary force that is heavily based on tradition and upon reinforcement from noble houses in times of emergency. The state also hires large number of Hill Martian mounted mercenaries to patrol the state’s borders with other Hill Martian tribes. But there have always been substantial number of mercenaries supplied by Canal Martians. These have traditionally been a mixture of cutthroats and ne’er-do-wells from outside the hereditary system whose main duty has been to garrison unpopular locations and collect overdue taxes. The Guild of Merchants petitioned the Prince to disband some of these companies and replace them with mercenary troops trained along the Earth model. They sold this on the basis that a) it could be done in such a way to curry favour with the earthmen at Syrtis Major, b) that it would allow them to learn more about how the red men fought so that they could better oppose them and c) that the merchants would pay for it. Argument c) swung it. The unspoken argument d) was that the merchants hoped to be able to gain effective control of these new troops as a counter to the nobles, but that passed the Prince and the nobles by at the early stages.
When Ilsanoor’s advisers approached the British Ambassador, Sir Henry Baird, for assistance he was only too happy to pass this on to HMG. The plan was to raise a battalion of infantry with a short battery of artillery. The Prince made it clear that the officers could not be seen to be serving the Queen, but would have to be answerable to him. HMG quite understood, naturally, and was only too willing to help build a strong, dependent ally on their border and one which also lay on the important trade route with the Boreosyrtis League. They at once proposed to procure the good offices of a British subject who would surely be exactly what Prince Ilsanoor wanted.
Their gaze fell upon Captain William E. Ewart of the Kings Own Borderers, lately serving with 2/3 Martian Infantry (Avenel Rifles) with the brevet rank of Major. Captain Ewart had recently come under something of a cloud, having fallen foul of his Commanding Officer, the Horse Guards and the Viceroy over a matter concerning a Steppe Tiger skin. Or, more accurately, over the press reports of a young Martian “Ochre Lady” found in the presence of Captain Ewart, both in a somewhat désabillé state, on said animal skin. The Queen was not amused, naturally. However even his worst detractors admitted that Ewart was an excellent officer, with a good appreciation of the handling of Martian troops. He also spoke excellent Parhooni which one can only surmise had something to do with the Ochre Lady.
In any case, Ewart was persuaded to resign his commission before the Queen revoked it (and with promise that he would be kept on half pay on the unofficial list for unspecified services to HMG). He was quickly despatched to Mylarkt to prevent any further fallout over the tiger-skin affair, and was duly appointed as First Sword of the Prince Ilsanoor Field Force, which Ewart took great delight in calling his PIFFers.
Monday, 18 May 2015
Martian Vehicles, or Do Martians Dream of Reliant Robins?
Another of my long-term projects has been to work out how Martians get around the place.
Walking is an option, naturally, as is riding the ubiquitous gashant or in a ruumet brehr howdah. I could also see sedan chairs and palanquins being good for those who could afford it.
There's liftwood for cloudships and screw galleys obviously - where would Space:1889 be without it? There are boats on the canals, and the large ruumet brehr-drawn wagons of the Wagon Masters of Meroe are legendary.
But how are the bulk of people and goods transported? Ruumet brehr wagons are (I'd guess) too big to get through most city streets. Your average rich merchant might be happy to ride in a howdah on his ruumet brehr, but he won't get astride a gashant to cross the city for a meeting - it's just so barbaric and last millenium, don't you know. Palanquins might be good for carrying ostentatious princelings (and rich merchants), but they're not much use for moving goods.
For smaller items handcarts, wheelbarrows and carry poles would work fine. But what about larger loads?
Some form of gashant-drawn carriage or cart makes sense, but how would they work? OK, confession time: I'm no expert on hitching horses, far less gashants. My experience of horse-drawn transport is pretty much limited to being driven round tourist locations at eye-watering expense.
But if I was willing to allow such a lack of qualifications stop me, why would I have started a blog in the first place, eh? So here goes!
I don't think you could put a single gashant between the shafts of a carriage or cart. Its bipedal gait may make it lurch from side to side, but that could perhaps be ignored - ostriches seem to move pretty smoothly. The bigger problem is probably the tail - think of the beast stretching forward; its tail coming up level behind it as it picks up speed, and whirling around as it changes direction (think of a cheetah cornering in full chase mode). How can it do that between two fixed shafts? Gashants side-by-side in traces might also be a problem as they would have to be a long way ahead of the cart to keep their tails away from the front wheels. Wouldn't that make control and steering a lot more difficult? And how do you stop the traces interfering with the tails?
A two-wheeler like a Hansom cab might be workable, perhaps with a single long shaft curved high over the rump of the Gashant. The wheels are set towards the rear of the passenger compartment, so are out of the way of the tail. I see the shaft as the weakness in this design, needing it to be strong whilst keeping the weight to a minimum. It should still be workable as a light cab, but it's not a means of moving goods around a city due to the difficulty of getting the weight distribution right for a single-axle vehicle.
Maybe a three-wheeler would work? (Yes, gentle blogee, that's where the Reliant Robin comes in, with due posthumous apologies to Philip K. Dick.) The cart would be somewhat boat-shaped, with a solid keel extending between the pair of draught-gashants, with the "hull" curving up sharply from the keel and out over their rears. Presumably the driver's position would be in the "prow". The single front wheel would be secured to the keel and be somewhere between the pair of gashants - probably at a level just behind their feet - and shrouded to prevent their tails being caught up. The rear wheels would be on a heavy axle towards the rear (stern?) of the vehicle, but not too far back in order to take some of the weight off the front wheel.
In fact five wheels would be better for load distribution, but this would make any cornering much more difficult unless you introduce some steering (and thus complexity) to the forward pair.
Then there's the question of what gashant tack would look like. (I know, I know, I need to get out more.) You probably need something similar to a horse collar, but would it fit round the relatively narrow shoulders of a gashant, or in front of its much heavier hips? The latter would make more sense to me (for all that's worth!), but how would it be secured? Perhaps it's a cushioned inverted U that is permanently fixed to a high central shaft, and is secured below the beast's belly by straps. (And I shall not speculate here on the existence or location of male gashant external reproductive organs.)
Of course it might be easier to posit some form of domesticated quadruped (or hexaped!) that doesn't get a mention in the Space:1889 canon, which can use wagons very similar to those on Earth, but that's no fun at all. (Or did I miss one?)
That's several solutions looking for a problem that exist only in my own imagination, I know, but it's cheaper than therapy any day :-)
Am I talking total nonsense? Has anyone out there seen or come up with better ideas on how to keep Mars moving?
Walking is an option, naturally, as is riding the ubiquitous gashant or in a ruumet brehr howdah. I could also see sedan chairs and palanquins being good for those who could afford it.
There's liftwood for cloudships and screw galleys obviously - where would Space:1889 be without it? There are boats on the canals, and the large ruumet brehr-drawn wagons of the Wagon Masters of Meroe are legendary.
But how are the bulk of people and goods transported? Ruumet brehr wagons are (I'd guess) too big to get through most city streets. Your average rich merchant might be happy to ride in a howdah on his ruumet brehr, but he won't get astride a gashant to cross the city for a meeting - it's just so barbaric and last millenium, don't you know. Palanquins might be good for carrying ostentatious princelings (and rich merchants), but they're not much use for moving goods.
For smaller items handcarts, wheelbarrows and carry poles would work fine. But what about larger loads?
Some form of gashant-drawn carriage or cart makes sense, but how would they work? OK, confession time: I'm no expert on hitching horses, far less gashants. My experience of horse-drawn transport is pretty much limited to being driven round tourist locations at eye-watering expense.
But if I was willing to allow such a lack of qualifications stop me, why would I have started a blog in the first place, eh? So here goes!
I don't think you could put a single gashant between the shafts of a carriage or cart. Its bipedal gait may make it lurch from side to side, but that could perhaps be ignored - ostriches seem to move pretty smoothly. The bigger problem is probably the tail - think of the beast stretching forward; its tail coming up level behind it as it picks up speed, and whirling around as it changes direction (think of a cheetah cornering in full chase mode). How can it do that between two fixed shafts? Gashants side-by-side in traces might also be a problem as they would have to be a long way ahead of the cart to keep their tails away from the front wheels. Wouldn't that make control and steering a lot more difficult? And how do you stop the traces interfering with the tails?
A two-wheeler like a Hansom cab might be workable, perhaps with a single long shaft curved high over the rump of the Gashant. The wheels are set towards the rear of the passenger compartment, so are out of the way of the tail. I see the shaft as the weakness in this design, needing it to be strong whilst keeping the weight to a minimum. It should still be workable as a light cab, but it's not a means of moving goods around a city due to the difficulty of getting the weight distribution right for a single-axle vehicle.
Maybe a three-wheeler would work? (Yes, gentle blogee, that's where the Reliant Robin comes in, with due posthumous apologies to Philip K. Dick.) The cart would be somewhat boat-shaped, with a solid keel extending between the pair of draught-gashants, with the "hull" curving up sharply from the keel and out over their rears. Presumably the driver's position would be in the "prow". The single front wheel would be secured to the keel and be somewhere between the pair of gashants - probably at a level just behind their feet - and shrouded to prevent their tails being caught up. The rear wheels would be on a heavy axle towards the rear (stern?) of the vehicle, but not too far back in order to take some of the weight off the front wheel.
In fact five wheels would be better for load distribution, but this would make any cornering much more difficult unless you introduce some steering (and thus complexity) to the forward pair.
Then there's the question of what gashant tack would look like. (I know, I know, I need to get out more.) You probably need something similar to a horse collar, but would it fit round the relatively narrow shoulders of a gashant, or in front of its much heavier hips? The latter would make more sense to me (for all that's worth!), but how would it be secured? Perhaps it's a cushioned inverted U that is permanently fixed to a high central shaft, and is secured below the beast's belly by straps. (And I shall not speculate here on the existence or location of male gashant external reproductive organs.)
Of course it might be easier to posit some form of domesticated quadruped (or hexaped!) that doesn't get a mention in the Space:1889 canon, which can use wagons very similar to those on Earth, but that's no fun at all. (Or did I miss one?)
That's several solutions looking for a problem that exist only in my own imagination, I know, but it's cheaper than therapy any day :-)
Am I talking total nonsense? Has anyone out there seen or come up with better ideas on how to keep Mars moving?
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