Protected Cruiser Atlanta, Part 5, The last gun position and scratchbuilding a Gatling gun

        It didn't take long for applying a zillion rivets to turn into a trudge so I decided to turn my had to fabricating the last two gun positions. These mounted 47mm "anti-torpedoe-boat quick firing guns" and were mounted amidships with a protruding casement to allow for a wide field of fire. These guns had more range and hitting power than the Gatling guns albeit at a slower rate of fire. The task was simple enough as the casements were simple half-cylinders. NOt finding enough difficulty in those I decided to have a go at scratchbuilding the gatling guns. This was a much more engaging task.

 

a simple cylinder of card stock rolled to double thickness with a flat cap glued to one end

Protected Cruiser Atlants; Part 4, Riveting developments

        Not terribly exciting but essential. I make rivets using puffy T-shirt paint. This is tedious and slow but rivets are the thing that held ships together, Millions, if not billions, of rivets. Each one heated red-hot and then pounded through the metal and hammered flat to hold the steel sheets together. My method requires far less work and no working with red-hot metal.

 

 this will take quite a while and I will take breaks to make other detail items such as boats, railings, etc

 

 

I still need to add the last two tertiary gun ports between the square six-inch gun ports

 

       I am somewhat apprehensive about finishing this model as the U.S.Navy painted their ships white with buff upper structures. White is (to me at least) the hardest color to weather effectively. Darn You Teddy Roosevelt!

Protected Cruiser Atlanta, Part 3, Gunports and such

       Things are moving on apace. Having finished the main guns I moved on to the secondary and tertiary gun positions. The Atlanta is an unusual ship with an odd layout in many ways, the secondary guns are in a battery firing through gun-ports much in the manner of wooden ships of the line. The tertiary guns are in peculiar little towers positions at the corners of the superstructure. These battery positions were closed with shutters that folded outward to allow the guns to rotate and bear on targets.

 

 

we saw the cylinders that are the gatling towers in my last post, 

they had to be cut to fit the curved superstructure,

this was (as usual) an all-guesswork operation

Protected Cruiser Atlanta, Part 2, Upperworks and armaments

       Not having much time today I stuck with beginning the upper works and the main guns. I detailed the con and began the process of making cylinders for the Gatling turrets and the funnels. The forest of ventilators will have to wait until I can make a trip to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies.

 

the con got framed in

 

on the real ship it was a tiny place

 

 

then I made the funnels, the fighting con ( the stubby cylinder), and the four gatling gun turrets 

the funnels were simply rolled heavyweight printer paper paper while the rest were index card

 

 

the main guns were more rolled typing paper with additional layers added toward the breech 

green board, sliced very thin, provided the structure of the mount

 

 

the spray shields around the gun were thin strips of green board gently curled

 

the whole ensemble, the funnels may have to be cut back a bit 

       Next up is the six secondary guns and a few gatling guns to deter torpedoe boats. Following that will be boats and davits, then rivets, lots and lots of rivets.

Protected Cruiser Atlanta; Part 1

 

       The first step was to gather as many images as possible (OK, as many images as possible after a ten minute search on the internet). Ships are complicated things with often lengthy life-spans so getting a decent grasp on the changes is important. The Atlanta was subject to many changes but the most significant was the addition of shields to the main guns and the reduction in the rigging plan. The vessel also had an unusual hull shape so getting a feel for that was important as well. Once I had a decent understanding of things it was time to get out my old friend Proxxie and to start cutting foam, 

 

it has been a while since I tried cutting curves, and boy does it show!

Off to visit Atlanta

        The protected cruiser Atlanta that is! Recently a friend of mine asked if I would build him a model of the USS Atlanta to go with the model of the USS Kearsarge that I had made for him a while ago. It has been quite a while since I built one of my per-dreadnought boats so it was easy to agree. He asked that it be in the same style (Impressionistic rather than an exact scale model) as the Kearsarge model. A quick image search provided the drawing you see below. Of particular interest are the staggered turrets for the main weapons and the open mounts for the same. This was certainly an unusual looking ship!

       Of course I leapt at the idea, more to follow

As usual, I've overdone it!

        Having finished the Fireforge knights I decided to get them organized and sorted out to be placed into storage boxes. It was then that I realized that I might (just maybe) have gone a bit to far into the deep end of the pond. Fourteen stands of knights exceeds by a considerable margin any reasonable requirements for  a Midgard army, even if I down-rate some of them to sergeants. The only comfort is that I can easily field enough forces for two complete armies. Be that as it may, I now have all of them painted and based and can tick that box off the list.

 

in total since the beginning of June I have painted one hundred seventy-five Medieval miniatures

A Few More Knights....

 

 

after pushing through the Hospitallers I took a deep breath and leaned into getting the rest done 

       Having survived painting the Hospitallers I decided that there was nothing for it except to just endure the misery (or, as the saying goes, "Embrace the suck") and push through and finish the whole mass of the knights. I decided that a couple of bases of Teutonic Knights were in order and then just a mess of mixed colors to provide some variety on the table. Many hours of sitting at the painting bench later I was finished. Now I needs to go see my chiropractor about my neck.

I'm Feeling Quite Cross Right Now, Updated!

 

 

twenty crosses on the knights, at least twenty crosses on the horses

what was I thinking?

       I have realized that trying to paint thirty-six cavalry at the same time is beyond me, thus I have chickened-out and I am concentrating my energies on getting the Hospitallers finished first, Things were going just fine until I discovered that the decals that I had planned on using had gotten damp (sometime between when I bought them twenty-plus years ago and the present) and were spoiled. Too stubborn to change my mind, too impatient to wait a couple of days for new decals and too stupid to realize the work I was getting myself into I asked myself "They're just crosses, how hard can it be?"

        It turns out that they are a LOT harder than I figured.

         Well, the shields were easier than the minis, mostly because they were large, mostly flat surfaces. I think that they turned out pretty well. Decals would have been FAR easier but probably too uniform to my tastes.

 

I removed the minis from the painting trees in an attempt to make it easier to paint the crosses

 

they turned out OK, I will hide the less attractive ones in the middle of the formation

 

 

 

based up and ready for ground effects

Taking A Break From The Ponies, or, Chainmail Blessings

 

 

grrrr!, there are thirty-six of these as well, at least they only have two legs apiece! 

       Having gotten the basecoat on all of the cavalry, and some shading done on the Knights Hospitallers horses I needed a break. I know myself well enough not to step back entirely from a project lest these remain unfinished for decades so I grabbed the knights and got to work on them. First order was to paint any exposed flesh then to coat all the areas of mail with flat black ( and the fabric on the Hospitaller Knights as well). Next was a medium wet-brushing of the mail or armored areas to lay down a basic metallic coat. After that had been given a chance to dry I came back and started touching up the shield faces and any clothing that had been splashed with black of steel. This is where I stand now, next is highlighting the black uniforms of the Hospitallers. Wish me luck.

Let The Drudgery Begin! Starting painting thirty-six cavalry horses

 

       I know it is my own fault, I built all of them at once, and thus they all need painting at the same time. To top it all off I have decided to paint some as Hospitallers and some other as Teutonics, one in white and the other in black. Both are colors I find difficult to paint, particularly the white. Happily the rest are subject to the usual palette of colors which will reduce my boredom.

       And no, The Muse is not singing, this is sheer bull-headedness that is driving me.

Good Heavens, what have I done?

 

        So, I found three boxes of Fireforge Middle Ages knights and sergeants while rummaging around in The Vault. I briefly thought of just pushing therm back into the dusty corner that I found them but I remembered the old saying "Cemeteries are full of people that thought that they had more time". I sighed and moved them to the head of the Painting Queue. I spent a couple of hours cleaning them up and assembling the minis last night. Now all I need is the motivation to paint all thirty-six of them!