Trouble in Bodstonia!! (pt1)

What´s all this!!!? Gunfire!! A cabin in flames!!!

There´s something afoot in Bodstonia!!!

Horse-Powered Ferryboat

Paddle boats powered by animals  have been around for a long time..the ancient Romans had them, powered by Oxen and they were highly popular in 19th century America. Apparently, at least eight different horseboat ferry routes operated from docks in southern Manhattan in the years between 1814 and 1819. One in New York, was powered by eight horses and could carry more than 200 passengers across the East River in 8 to 18 minutes.. as fast as a steam paddle boat.

The earlier ones had circular walkways in the middle of the deck for the horses which took up a lot of deck space or, to avoid this boxes were built on the sides, catamaran style,  to house the horses.

My Version is based on an innovation by Barnabas Langdon in 1819 -- the treadwheel-propelled horseboat whereby the drive wheel is placed horizontally under the deck and is similar to the design of a  "horse boat" wreck, the "superior horse boat EAGLE",  which was discovered in 1983/4 in Burlington Bay, Vermont.

I haven´t worked out how the nags can be Held in place (what type of harnesses etc I can use) but seeing as horses are treated well in Bodstonia they do their Job happily so no restraints are needed

The Basic structure - pre-painting.

Foam core with Card cladding scored to represent planking. The Roof Frame is made from toothpicks and the Roof canvas (on the painted version) some old material

 Obviously this will end up crossing the waterways of Bodstonia and can be seen with Crew and passengers in situ HERE ( along with my solution to steering)

Airfix Waterloo Highland Infantry (Mk2)

Still carrying on with the Napoleonic theme and as part of the Airfix Tribute Forum Waterloo GB I´ve added another stand of infantry, another centre Company but this time a centre company of the 42 Regiment,  Royal Highland - Black Watch.
As with the Airfix Waterloo British Infantry they are  100% Airfix, but this time I used bits from the British infantry set.
I´ve painted the set before (HERE) using the Airfix Boxart as a reference. Back then (2 years ago) I used more  "false" blacklining than nowadays...but I still like the look of the Blacklined ones.

There´s 23 bods on the stand, only 2 less than the Waterloo British Infantry stand with 25 but it still Looks a  bit empty in comparison.

The conversions (I didn´t take pics before painting)

This Waterloo Diorama from the 1970´s  is worth a look..virtually all 1/72nd Airfix !!

Airfix Waterloo British Infantry

As part of the Airfix 2015 Waterloo 1815 GB (Group Build) over at the  Airfix Tribute Forum
Rules;
"Any and all Airfix Napoleonic, no matter what scale, 1/76, 54mm or 1/12. They can be displayed as vignette, diorama or singly. In diorama; a depiction of Quatre Bras is permitted too. Conversions are welcome too, as long as the result is still at least 51% Airfix plastic."

My part of the GB with all the stages, from removing the paint to the final stand can be found HERE

Without going over the top and creating buildings or an exact historic Scene from the battle, I  decided to make a line of british infantry in Action and Keep  to using 100% Airfix  and using parts from within the set itself for conversions.

Instead of a set up of strict lines, firing, loading etc I´ve gone for a more fluid look, no strictly defined firing , reloading  lines.  They were going to be based as part of a small dio but I eventually based them as a unit for  wargaming. It was a Change painting napoleonic bods, so maybe I´ll add one or two stands when I get the urge to paint something different from my usual themes...

The set is pretty generous with the number of poses but I don´t really like painting the same pose over and over to get enough bods to create a decent enough grouping and, as it´s said, Variety is the spice of life,  so some knife work was called for.

Conversions.

After painting and basing I came up with another 4 conversions but adding them would have overloaded the base, making it too crowded for my liking. 

The Flags. They  Come from the Nap Flag site, a site set up by Alan Pendlebury who very generously has made loads of napoleonic flags he´s created available for free download. Please observe his conditions of use.

The flags (as does thier uniforms as far as possible) represent those carried by the centre Company from the 1st Battalion 1st Foot Guards Regiment, but as Alan notes on his site;
"I have been unable to discover which of the 24 possible Regimental colours was carried by the 1st Battalion 1st Guards at Waterloo. I have opted for that of the 2nd company which had the red and white Tudor rose as a central device."

If anyone is looking for a decent resource site for uniform plates for the 1815 campaign;
Les uniformes pendant la Campagne des Cent Jours - Belgique 1815
In French but it has (as far as I can see) every Regiment represented with line, Grenadier etc companies

Goblin slavers (2)

Follow-on and additions to the Goblin slavers.
The raids in the borderlands  have  increased in number and now, having made a deal of Money from  sales of recent aquisitions, the goblins have bought some Transport for their prisoners.

Another village Comes under attack!

The prison wagon from the strelets Roman Transport 3 the wargs from one of the dark Alliance sets. Goblin from Linear-b´s Roman Transport.

Goblin on the left with captive from the Linear-b Spartacus uprising set, Goblin with the Flail from the Linear-b Roman peasantry set.

Woman from the Linear-b Slave Market set, the man from the Roman peasantry set.

18th Century Fire engine

Another Little scratch build, this time a Fire engine.
There´s a few designs of  Fire engines made in the period from 1700 - 1800, so taking ideas from a couple of them  I came up with this;

Wheels from the Airfix Waterloo French artillery set the rest, Cocktail sticks, bit´s of Balsa Wood, paper, pin heads and florist wire.

The hoses are made from twisted paper, the nozzle is from the Caeser Ancient Egyptian Chariots set (described at PSR as a bowcase or quiver)

The input/Output Nozzles (front left and right) are heads from Picture Frame tacks.

The Pumping handles, front axle and the towing bar are moveable

It really is tiny compared to the other carriages I´ve built and building it was quite fiddly.

Being so small and delicate, it needs somewhere to Keep it so......a fire Station was next on the list.
1cm thick Insulation foam for the walls with a printed stonework covering, the lintel and quoins (the stonework on the sides) from cut,scored  and painted Card, Stone floor printed, the Roof made from biscuit paper, Gable Ends and sign cut Card, sign printed and the sign post a Cocktail stick.

 Home of the B.F.B, the Bodstonian Fire Brigade

"Unveiling" day of the new Fire Station with attendant onlookers HERE

18th century Post - Chaise

The Mk 4 carriage for Bodstonia, a "post-Chaise"
I didn´t 100% copy the designs I found on the web, most of them have a set of springs  front and back but adding them raised the whole Thing too high so they were removed.

Wheels from various Airfix sets, the nags from Revell´s Imperial artillery set, the rest, cardboard, copperwire, piano wire, staples,  expanded foam and a pinhead for the doorhandle.

The Chaise in situ in the world of Bodstonia - HERE

The collection so far (the cab on the MKI definately needs changing for another)

18th century 2 wheeled chaise (One Horse Shay)

Another bit of scratch built Transport for Bodstonia, a two wheeled Chaise (One-horse shay)
This one is modelled (very roughly) on a pic I found on the web which showed a  Chaise from the era of Louis XV,  (who ruled France from 1715 until 1774 ) so it fits into the time era for Bodstonia

Bod and nag from the Russian Artillery of Peter the Great, wheels from an Airfix WWI british tank

Pic of the Caise in situ HERE

Roman Transport - 4 (Strelets)

Another Addition to the ancients range and some new recruits for the town of  Scalpere Aedificere.
13 Bods,  two Litters,  Two mules, Two Oxen and a parrot.
The 10 Standing bods.....

...and the 3 sitting ones...and Polly the  parrot.

  

They had a couple of species of parrots/Parakeets kept as pets in ancient Rome. My Version is a Ringnecked Parrakeet from India.

A parrakeet Mosiac (from Pergamon  ca 200BC) of an Alexandrine parakeet or Alexandrian parrot (scientific name Psittacula eupatria, ) named after Alexander the Great, who is said to have first sent several of the birds from the Punjab to the west.

Pliny the Elder  wrote  instructions for teaching parrots to talk which included hitting them on the head with an iron bar!!
Probably didn´t work that well and ended up with an ancient Roman forerunner of the dead parrot sketch.

The one on the right. An Amanuensis, ("within Hands reach") a slave who worked in the capacity of personal assistant or secretary to the Dominus /Domina. The one on the right a Baiulus ("porter" or "bearer") a slave who performed tasks similar to that of a normal footman.

Another pair of Baiuli. The one at the front, getting the box bashing into him, looks like he has literally got the "bum deal"

A letica (transportable Couch) and the leticarii (Couch carriers)

So far, so good. Everything is fine. Very Little Flash to be dealt with, nice Details and poses.  The Bods are a bit slimmer (more finely sculpted) than their previous contempories but fit well alongside them.


The other Transport Piece in the set.  Where can I start?
The historical accuracy?
The earliest reference I can find to  horse carried Sedan chairs (or litters) is from the medieval period. The best  reference I found is  a painting by Jean Fouquet about an Event in 1378 called Entrée de l'empereur Charles IV à Saint-Denis,   or Entrée de l'empereur Charles IV devant Saint-Denis painted between 1455- 1460.
I´ve found no  references to Roman litters,  even ones for high Nobility, being carried by horses. That´s not to say the romans couldn´t have come up with the idea but , at time of writing and lacking any references..it´s historically innacurate to portray them doing so.
It doesn´t look like anything from the Roman period, it´s more a 17th / 18th century design.
The construction?
The poles across the doors would mean they would have to be removed to let passengers in or out. Considering the length  and possible weight of the carrying poles, and having to set the cab down and release the poles from the mules,   this would be a difficult Task to say the least.  Virtually every example of a sedan chair has an opening to the front but in this case it would again be impractical. The passengers would have to Exit between the cab and a mule (danger of getting kicked if at the front) and then duck under the pole.

Apart from that, it fits together reasonably well. The width of the carriage means the carrying poles need bending slightly inwards to make it possible to attach them to the mules but when attached they stay put.
The set Comes with three passenger bods. At a squeeze only two would fit and then opposite each other but it looked very uncomfortable.
Still, I like the look of the cab and I like the idea,  so with a bit of Alteration it will be given a use in Bodstonia.


OOB

18th century coach (MarkII)

The first one was the test Piece, what materials work, what´s possible and to get a feel for building such a thing and It turned out better than I thought but improvements can be made, so why not try a  Mark II.

Again, this  carriage will end up in Bodstonia.

This time no balsawood, just Card,  a bit of insulating foam (the seat) and some Florist wire.
The the nags are from the Strelets Norman Train set, the wheels from the bits box.

Again, a seated coachman will have to be found (or created ) at some Point.
Anyway, it´s taken it´s place in Bodstonia.. in Symphonie´s day out  :-D

18th century coach

Bodstonia Needs some other Transport other than carts and wagons, especially for the more "well off" and less robust gentile Folks. Anyway, this was a test Project which, although being a wee bit bigger than originally intended,it slowly  took shape, I liked the look of it and decided not  to trash it.

Wheels from various Airfix sets, the window decoration from an old railway kit,  everything else Card or balsawood.

Getting the straps the right length so the "box" part would sit Level was a pain