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

Roman Transport 3 - Strelets

Another Addition to the Roman Transport line  from strelets. This one  seems to depict a slave round up Scene but seeing as there´s a wagon involved it passes for a Transport set.
13 bods (two as a pair and 14 if the Infant is counted) 2 oxen and 1 wagon.

 

"Is that a gladius under your Sagum  or are you just pleased to see me?"

From left to right;

1.Farmer about town. I reckon he was to be leading one of the bulls but he makes a decent enough "stand alone" bod.

2.Casual onlooker. I´ve painted up the object he´s eating as a pomegranate, seems more Roman style than a "common" apple (although they treated apples etc as luxury items)

3. Riddled walker. He was carrying a Whip in his right Hand but seeing as there are bods with Whips in a couple of the previous sets, I thought another was unecessary so he ended up with a  replacement Walking stick.

4. Concerned onlooker. Judging by her clothing and jewellry she isn´t connected to the other slaves..if she was she would have been relieved of her jewels etc pretty quickly.

The prison wagon.
Fits together well, although releasing the parts from the sprue and the following cleaning up does take a while.
As always, the scheme for attaching the beasts to the wagon leaves a lot to be desired, the pic Shows the set up as OOB.

Still, after a lot of carefull snipping and "spotwelding" (Holding a hot pin to turn the plastic on two pieces liquid and run into each other) the Cage and the Roof together, adding a scratchbuilt towing bar (metal rod heated up and welded to the bottom of the wagon) it doesn´t look too bad.

Seeing as there is no indication of  a door (a good idea would to have been to add a lock and hinges to one of the pieces that make up the Ends of the Cage ) I´ve added a Piece of jewelly chain to give an Illusion of  there being some way of opening the back.
Above and below the chain, you can see the result of the "spotwelding" . Now the whole Thing is fixed  together I can remove Them but for the purposes of the pic I haven´t.

Seeing as it has  more of a  Fantasy look to it (it´s chunky design) I may  use it for the Goblin Slavers

WotR´s Scurrers (Redbox)

....or  scurriers /scourers / prickers or Hobilars...loads of different names and a lot of different ways of spelling them...

This lot are from the Red box WotR´s range and very welcome they are.

 

Arms, armour and clothing are all well done, vitually no Flash, the only one small annoyance, the nags. Like the Mounted Men-at-arms set, there´s too few nag poses, only two in the set which means 6 running or 6 Standing nags.
The Lances. They are a bit too short for my liking, the average seems to been around  9 - 14 feet Long (3 - 4 plus) meters so I´ve replaced them.

 

At first I thought the one shading his eyes had been molded wrong, he just wouldn´t sit flat in the saddle but obviously he is Standing in the stirrups to get a better view.

 

The bod on the left has had the axe replaced with a Lance, the bod on the right is from the Mounted men-at-arms set, with a head swop from the Redbox Town & County Levy set...........

Either he is trying to Keep his balance or waving

...........and from the mounted Men-at-arms set, another two conversions. Basic head swops and the bod on the right has had his mace replaced with a Lance.

I´ll wait with basing up the Scurrers until I´ve got the European Mercenaries Light Horse set. Hopefully there will be enough to make up 3 bases of five per base.

 

Medieval salt transport

A man can live without Gold or silver, but not without salt.

Often quoted as being "as expensive weight for weight, as Gold" (a statement I cannot find any confirmation for) it certainly influenced the  creation and  destruction of Empires.
A quick scan of the Internet gave These examples , among many others;
 

In China, Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, (who  apparently is credited with invented writing, the bow and arrow, the cart, and ceramics),  precided over what is considered as  the first salt war.
 

The city of Rome may have begun as a salt-trading Center.
 

The salt mines of Poland led to a vast kingdom in the 16th century, only to be destroyed when Germans brought in sea salt. The Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland was started in 1280 and went on producing until 2007!!
 

Venice fought and won a war ( War of Ferrara) with Genoa over salt.
 

The gabelle—a hated French salt tax—was enacted in 1286 and maintained until 1790. Because of the gabelles, common salt was of such a high value that it caused mass population shifts and exodus, attracted invaders and caused wars and was one of the causes of the French Revolution.
 

The Moscow uprising of 1648 is sometimes known as the salt riot, started because of the government's replacement of different taxes with a universal salt tax.
 

Thousands of Napoleon's troops died during the French retreat from Moscow due to inadequate wound healing and lowered resistance to disease - the results of salt deficiency.
 

During the american revolutionary war of 1812, salt brine was used to pay soldiers in the field, as the government was too poor to pay them with Money. and during the ACW, Salt production facilities in Saltville, Va., Virginia's Kanawha Valley and Avery Island, Louisiana, were early targets of the Union Army. The North fought for 36 hours to capture Saltville, Va., where the salt works were considered crucial to the Rebel army - so crucial that Confederate President Jefferson Davis offered to waive military service to anyone willing to tend coastal salt kettles to supply the South's war effort.

 

So, you can see it was important...and highly prized in less industrial times, the cost in the mid 14th Cent was 60 times higher when compared to the period just beforeWWI.
Important because it was used for preservation of foodstuffs and necessary to Keep livestock healthy..an army with sick horses has a huge disadvantage.
Highly prized because it´s production was Manpower intensive, distances from production to end sale/use Long and difficult and therefore costly.

That being the case...any medieval (or come to that pre-motorization) army would have some form of salt supply in the "wagon Train" ..and it would Need guarding.

As far as I can find out, salt was stored and transported in casks (Barrels) .The cask for transport by donkey  was 107 pounds (55 kg)

While salt may or may not have had the same value as Gold it would have been important so it´s Position in the Train would have been central with lots of soldiery (the word soldier Comes from Sal = Salt) around it