Project Landship Update 1

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, 

there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Bilbo Baggins

Its been a few weeks, so a quick update now that the model is in hand (and to keep myself honest). As delivered:

And in the time it takes to make a good Gin & Tonic, it looked like this:

...decals stripped (soaking those areas with vegetable oil for 5 mins was the best way to get rid of the glue residue) and washed in detergent to get rid of whatever the decades had left.

And I had a win at the local model store: incomplete kits bagged up as a source of bitz and 'gubbinz' (my own big box of bitz being inconveniently in a different hemisphere)

Of course, then I spent two weeks turning then all over and over in my hands, coming up with new and different approaches to my first thoughts. Did I say that I would avoid Analysis Paralysis?

Yes, well....

Interestingly, after disassembly, I found the tracks to be quite reversible. So I ended up completely changing my approach, reversing the entire model and turning what is currently the 'engine bay' into a barbette gun platform like this:

Barbette mount on the French ironclad Le Redoubtable

I wanted to go for a more 'early pre-dreadnought' look rather than that a big turreted beast so this fit well and looked a promising way ahead.

So after a week of working up a stiff upper lip for the task, I bought myself a handy-dandy USB powered rotary tool and started cutting...

I managed to preserve most of the lovely detail for a future project

Which after a bit of clean-up looks thus:

I'll probably turn that hole where the boiler was into a crew access hatch

For the replacement deck, I wanted a ship-like wooden deck for the cannon to sit on. Using wood would also lighten the overall weight of the beast, which I'm sure my fictional 19th Century engineers would prioritise to coax a bit more speed out of her. Made from coffee stirrers glued to plastic card shaped for the hole.



Suitability test fit with my gun before I trimmed it down gives you an idea of were I'm going with this (more to follow on the gun next time)...

Looking ahead, what was the forward "conning tower" can now be built up into more of a Ship's Bridge, looking down and over the gun platform. A multi-level bridge like this would definitely give a "warship" feel but likely be overdoing it on a vehicle this size. Will experiment.

But most importantly, I've made a start - the first cut is the hardest: On on!