Old School Balkan Dirigibles

Gentlemen,

Below are a selection of the scratch built Dirigibles I made for the Balkan Air Fleets some 4 years ago - certainly the Turks pre date Brigades models. They are now residing in the collection of Steve Blease and are rumoured to be appearing in the 2nd edition of Aeronef when it is published. These wee very simple to build - consisting of spare aircraft bombs and drop tanks with various pieces of scrap plastic and sprue added to taste. The Turkish Carrier started life as the Revell Hindenburg kit with much chopping about. I really must get around to making some more of these as the basic technique I used has improved with practise and the fact that Brigade produce a load of usable bits to add to the resultant model.

The Turkish carrier Messudieh - note the wing turret type rails for launching fixed wing fliers.

A Turkish cruiser squadron on patrol, no doubt searching the Greeks or Bulgarians.

The Greek Coastal defence Dirigibles Psara, Hydra and Spetsai.

A Greek escort squadron of small destroyer sized dirigibles.

Finally the Bulgarians - the large model in the centre has some outrigger launching rails for fixed wing aircraft although sadly I never got around to adding them.

It was great fun making these and I am sure the next lot will be even better.
I hope you enjoy this piece of Aeronef history as much as I did digging them out!

Zeppelin to America

From Our Correspondent: Lakehurst, New Jersey, 15th October 1924

Zeppelin Missing!

"Hopes are fading for a successful conclusion to the fantastic exercise of a trans-Atlantic crossing from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to here in New Jersey today. In one of the most incredible adventures yet seen in the world of aviation, the German Zeppelin, LZ-126, no longer the monstrous terror-bomber of the late European War, was to have been flown by its co-creator, Dr Hugo Eckener across the stormy waters of the North Atlantic to take her place amongst the burgeoning ranks of our own glorious Air Corps.

As our readers will know, this terrible symbol of Prussian aggression was to have been offered to our government as part of War Reparations, and would have been converted to civilian use.

The Hydrogen-filled monster was last seen crossing the Irish coast in cloudy weather, escorted by fighters that appeared as mere moths against her giant bulk; (See photograph above) her expert crew confident that they would make landfall on American shores within two days.

President Calvin Coolidge's Office has denied reports that her disappearance may have some connection to the recent activity of Air Pirates in the vicinity of the Newfoundland Coast, and have stated that all efforts are being made to trace the gaseous leviathan......"

An interesting anniversary today, the fifteenth of October, which saw the successful conclusion of a transatlantic flight some three years before the exploits of Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis, which have somewhat claimed the limelight ever since. Dr Hugo Eckener, co-developer of Germany's dirigible airships, convinced the Allies post WWWI that it would be better to support the fledgling aviation industry by allowing the construction of civilian airships, rather than seeing them dismantled. Although controversial, this decision saw the transfer of LZ-126 from Germany to the U.S. Air Force to become the ZR3, later the Los Angeles.

Once her Hydrogen had been replaced by Helium, she served on as a training ship, and had the distinction of being the only U.S. Airship not to be destroyed in an accident, making over three hundred flights in an eight year period.

Excellent information on this unusual footnote in history, and other early dirigibles can be found here:

http://www.airships.net/us-navy-rigid-airships/uss-los-angeles

http://www.air-and-space.com/LZ-126%20LZ-127.htm

Plenty of stuff to inspire scenarios, I think; was the LZ-126 intercepted by Air Pirates, or did Dr Eckener have more sinister motives for taking charge of the Zeppelin on her maiden voyage?....

(Photo shows Revell Minikit Hindenburg accompanied by flight of Irregular Miniatures 2mm IKGW6, generic biplane)

Welcome Captain Shrike!

Another convert to the madness of VSF!

Welcome to the fray Sir.. and with tid-bits like your new 'Air Station Zebra' (pictured here) we can clearly expect big things from you!

http://captainshrike.blogspot.com/

The Complete Military History of France

Intriguing facts from a recent lecture at the Imperial War College, delivered by Colonel Rowley Birkin, retired (you may recall him from here: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2006/12/happy-new-year.html)



Gallic Wars - Lost. In a war whose ending foreshadows the next 2000 years of French history, France is conquered by of all things, an Italian.

Hundred Years War - Mostly lost, saved at last moment by schizophrenic teenaged girl, who inadvertently creates The First Rule of French Warfare; "France's armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchman."

Italian Wars - Lost. France becomes the first and only country to ever lose two wars when fighting Italians.

Wars of Religion - France goes 0-5-4 against the Huguenots.

Thirty Years War - France is technically not a participant, but manages to get invaded anyway. Claims a tie on the basis that eventually the other participants started ignoring her.

War of Devolution - Tied. Frenchmen take to wearing red flowerpots as chapeaux.

The Dutch War - Tied

War of the Augsburg League/King William's War/French and Indian War - Lost, but claimed as a tie. Three ties in a row induces deluded Frogophiles the world over to label the period as the height of French military power.

War of the Spanish Succession - Lost. The War also gave the French their first taste of a Marlborough, which they have loved every since.

American Revolution - In a move that will become quite familiar to future Americans, France claims a win even though the English colonists saw far more action. This is later known as "de Gaulle Syndrome", and leads to the Second Rule of French Warfare; "France only wins when America does most of the fighting."

French Revolution - Won, primarily due the fact that the opponent was also French.

The Napoleonic Wars - Lost. Temporary victories (remember the First Rule!) due to leadership of a Corsican, who ended up being no match for a British footwear designer.

The Franco-Prussian War - Lost. Germany plays the role of drunk Frat boy to France's ugly girl home alone on a Saturday night.

World War I - Tied and on the way to losing, France is saved by the United States (According to them - eh?) Thousands of French women find out what it's like to not only sleep with a winner, but one who doesn't call her "Fraulein." (Yes, indeed lots of colonials served in France as well as giving old Johnny Turk a good fight at gallipolli!) Sadly, widespread use of condoms forestalls any improvement in the French bloodline.

World War II - Lost. Conquered French liberated by the United States and Britain (supported once again by stout colonial chaps!) just as they finish learning the Horst Wessel Song.

War in Indochina - Lost. French forces plead sickness, take to bed with the Dien Bien Flu.

Algerian Rebellion - Lost. Loss marks the first defeat of a western army by a Non-Turkic Muslim force since the Crusades, and produces the First Rule of Muslim Warfare; "We can always beat the French." This rule is identical to the First Rules of the Italians, Russians, Germans, English, Dutch, Spanish, Vietnamese and Esquimaux.

War on Terrorism - France, keeping in mind its recent history, surrenders to Germans and Muslims just to be safe. Attempts to surrender to Vietnamese ambassador fail after he takes refuge in a McDonald's.

The question for any country silly enough to count on the French should not be "Can we count on the French?" but rather "How long until France collapses?"


All in good fun of course Chaps, what ho!

Eli's Land Ironclads

Eli (of "I see Lead People" blog fame) brought my attention to his LI army this week.
I like the twin turreted beasts with triangular treads in particular - well done Sir!

http://leadpeople.blogspot.com/2008/10/land-ironclads-force-thus-far.html

Dreadnought Class Battle Zeppelin

From the forthcoming animated steampunk epic "War of the Worlds: Goliath"


http://www.heavymetal.com/wotw/gallery.html

Ragnarok 56 preview

The next SFSFW journal, due out this month:

Issue 56 contains the following:
Allies and Mercenaries In Warhammer 40,000
Fantasy Air Wargaming
Competition: Fantasy Air Wargaming
If Rome Had Not Fallen
Tusk
“Tighten the Line” Scenario
Sub-Loque
Space Vixens: Divine Wind
Space Hrud
The Rules of War - 3rd Edition Space Hulk reviewed
The Melting Pot - Miniature Reviews


http://www.sfsfw.org/rag56.php

Confederate Submarines

Davids, Hunleys, Pioneer II, they are all here in the neat little article... with a conspiracy theory thrown in for good measure!

http://militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/confederate_submarines_of_the_civil_war

HML Leviathan unveiled

Catalyst Games have released this beautiful preview of the completed artwork for HML Leviathan.

http://monstersinthesky.com/2009/10/02/evolution-of-the-british-leviathan_part-3/#more-245

Colonial Invasion fiction

Yes, we wrote it here in the Colonies too!

This series of articles was compiled for a Melbourne newspaper, The Argus, in 1887 and reflected the threat posed by the Russian Pacific Squadron.

http://www.cerberus.com.au/dash.pdf

This will make a cracking set of scenarios for Aquanef ....with a few digs and submersibles thrown in of course!

Sydney wasn't left out of the Invasion Fiction either:

The Invasion, by WH Walker, published in Sydney in 1877

"This period fiction recounts a fictional attack on Sydney by the Russians. Iron-clad Russian warships were described, standing off the heads as a diversion while a fleet of steamers debouched 6,000 troops at Botany Bay at two in the morning. Battles raged throughout the eastern suburbs and city before heroic efforts finally had the Russian invaders on the run, leaving Sydney ablaze and thousands slaughtered."

Ironclad Ramming

A fascinating article from "War and Game" - dont forget that HMS Thunderchild in War of the Worlds was an ironclad ram!

"Ram Anything Painted Gray” – Wilhelm von Tegetthoff before the Battle of Lissa(1866)

The Austro-Prussian War (1866) was fought between the Austrian Empire on one side, and Prussia and the Kingdom of Italy on the other side. Prussia sought to gain greater control over Germany, while Italy wanted to take Venetia from the Austrians.. The largest naval engagement occurred near the island of Lissa in the Adriatic Sea. There an Austrian fleet of ironclads and steam powered wooden ships fought a larger Italian fleet. The Austrians caught the Italians unprepared and succeeded in “crossing the T” of the Italian fleet. The heavy side belt armor of the ironclads was invulnerable to gunnery, and the most effect offensive tactic was ramming. The Austrian fleet emerged victorious. In the war, however, Austria was defeated and ceded territory to both Prussian and Italy.


In more modern examples, many 19th Century ironclad battleships were so equipped. The first modern ram ship built was the French-built Taureau, in 1863. In fact, many ironclad ships were designed specifically to ram opponents. In ships of this type, the armour belt was prolonged to brace both sides of the ram to increase structural integrity.



The theory behind the revival of the weapon derived from the fact that, in the period around 1860, armour held superiority over the ship-mounted cannon. That is to say, it was believed that an armoured warship could not be seriously damaged by the naval artillery in existence at the time. In order to achieve a decisive result in a naval engagement, therefore, alternative methods of action were believed to be necessary. As it followed, from the same belief, that a ship armed with a ram could not be seriously damaged by the gunfire of its intended victim, the ram became, for a brief period, the main armament of Royal Navy and contemporary foreign battleships.

The frequent use of ramming as a tactic in the Battle of Lissa (1866) also led to many late nineteenth century naval designers equipping their warships with ram bows. This only really aggravated a number of incidents of ships being sunk by their squadron-mates in accidental collisions as ramming never featured as a viable battle tactic again. The fixation on ramming may also have inhibited the development of gunnery.

When it became clear, towards the end of the nineteenth century, that breech-loading cannon could hit, and hit effectively, enemy ships at several thousand yards range, the ineffectiveness of the ram became clear and ships ceased to be fitted with them.

No other ironclad was ever sunk by an enemy ship in time of war by the use of the ram, although the ram was regarded by all major navies for some thirty years as primary battleship armament. A number of ships were, however, rammed in peacetime by ships of their own navy. The most serious in terms of loss of life was the collision between HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown,[Tas's note - a young John Jellicoe, the RN Fleet Commander at the Battle of Jutland, narrowly escaped death in this incident] which took place in the Mediterranean in 1893. The only battleship over submarine victory in history occurred during World War I, when the battleship HMS Dreadnought rammed and sank a German U-Boat, but this was incidental, and Dreadnought’s bow was not intended for ramming enemy vessels.


http://warandgame.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/ironclad-ram-doctrine/

General Staff expands

Yours in a White Wine Sauce to proud to welcome our newest contributor, Steelonsand, who is renowned for his recent work on the Turkish Aquanef Osman Pasha and who has earlier this year been involved in chronicling Weird WW1 (whatever that means!).

The General Staff has tipped him as one to watch, especially for his trademark and novel use of the eye drop pipette in modelling. A link to his blog now appears on the left hand frame under "Member Blogs".

So Huzzah and welcome to the mess Steelonsand.

The first round of drinks is on us!

And while we are at it, a bumper round of port and cigars for all in celebration of Mssr Ogrefencer's birthday! Many happy returns old Boy!!!

Confederate sympathies in the colonies: CSS Shenandoah

In 1864 the Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah received orders to "seek out and utterly destroy" the whaling fleets of New England as part of an effort to bleed the Union economically. 

She was a 230 foot Armed Cruiser: speed 9 knots; complement 109; armament: 4 8-inch smoothbores, 2 32-pounder rifles, full sail rigged with auxiliary steam power.  Adventures ensued in the northern Pacific Ocean and by early 1865 she needed supplies and minor repairs. 

The Shanandoah hauled out for repairs in Williamstown, Melbourne, Feb 1865.

She took refuge in the colonial port of Melbourne where she was refitted, took on supplies and surreptitiously recruited a few local"stow-aways" as replacement crew. This caused quite a stir and some anxious moments with over zealous local constabulary that started to become serious. The situation became quite heated with the gun frigate HMS Victoria standing close by, and the Shenandoah's Captain ordering her guns to be loaded with shot. Then:

"Fortunately for everyone, the Australians knew how to smooth ruffled feathers: they threw a party up in Ballarat and stoked it with pretty girls. The railroads supplied the Confederates with free passes, and the entire population turned out to greet them" (The Last Shot, pp 146-7)

Two days later the Shenandoah proceeded to sea without further incident!

Article from Melbourne's "The Age" newspaper, 26 January 1865

After her effective anti-commerce patrols, Shenandoah became the only Confederate warship to circumnavigate the globe during the conflict and was the last Confederate military unit to surrender at the war's end. In fact, it was well after the war officially ended!

While General Lee surrendered the Confederacy in April 1965, the CSS Shenandoah remained at sea, capturing and burning a Union whaling fleet in the Bering Sea as late as June (and what were probably the last shots fired in the war).  

40 year old Lieutenant James Waddell, Captain of the Shenandoah,poses for
a photograph in Melbourne at the studio of Batchelder & O’Neill in 1865.

It wasn't until 2 August that Captain James Waddell met a British ship (the bark Barracuta on her way home to Liverpool from San Francisco) and received confirmed news that the Confederacy had fallen months earlier.

Fearing they would be hanged as pirates if they returned to the now victorious United States of America, the crew chose to sail 9,000 miles to Liverpool, which was the hub of the Confederacy’s overseas operations and the ship's original place of construction as the troop transport Sea King.

The city was effectively the Confederate capital abroad, home to financial agents and the Confederate naval commander James Dunwoody Bulloch, who had secretly overseen the building of their fleet.

The CSS Shenandoah finally sailed into Liverpool on 6 November 1865, where Captain Waddell officially surrendered to the Royal Navy’s HMS Donegal, marking the final surrender of the war and the last time the Confederate flag was lowered.

Shenandoah had remained at sea for 12 months and 17 days, had sailed 58,000 miles and had sunk or captured 38 ships.  Most were whalers and two-thirds of them were after the close of hostilities. Waddell took close to a thousand prisoners without a single casualty among his crew. Only two crewmen had died of disease. 

CSS Shenandoah anchored astern of HMS Donegal in the River Mersey (Edward D. Walker)

Post Scripts: 

-In post war proceedings, a court later found that the British Government had breached the laws of neutrality in rendering assistance in Melbourne and ordered reparations to be paid.

- In 1866 the US took possession of Shenandoah and sold her to the first Sultan of Zanzibar. He renamed her after himself (El Majidi). On 15 April 1872 a hurricane hit Zanzibar and Shenandoah, one of six ships owned by Seyed Burgash, was blown upon the shore and damaged beyond repair. The most feared commerce raider in the Confederate States Navy was no more.

[VSF Thought bubble] Now what if this incident was based on a raiding Confederate dirigible instead...

[EDIT] Interesting news article posted here for the 150th Anniversary of this event

http://us-civil-war.suite101.com/article.cfm/css_shenandoah_confederate_raider
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/MaraudersCivilWar/CSSShenandoah.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Shenandoah
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-sz/shendoah.htm

If this interests you, there are some great further reading in these two volumes

Seascape Sea Mats

These are a bit more expensive than Hotz (which are excellent, I have one) but these are just...wow...
I also like the options for seperate throw down islands and coastline.

http://www.terrainmat.com/SeaScape1.1.html

Now I know what I need for Christmas....

Turkish Aquanef 'Osman Pasha' at Sea!

Exclusive report from our Correspondent; Istanbul, 24th of September:

Persistent rumours of a new secret weapon in the struggle for supremacy over the Eastern Nations have been borne out by the appearance of a steel monster in the waters off the Golden Horn.

This Correspondent has seen with his own eyes the strange grey shape appearing from the depths, a modern Kraaken designed by the greatest technological minds as the latest plaything of the Sublime Porte. Were it not for its modern armament of torpedos and Nordenfeldt repeating guns, this could easily be mistaken for a fantasy from the Arabian Nights, this strange leviathan that at a stroke has made obsolete the Ironclads and Dreadnoughts of the Tsar, and of the Kingdoms of Italy and Greece, and no doubt will cause concern even in the bulwarked bosom of the mighty Empress Victoria herself.

Named the Osman Pasha, this terror of the deep is now undergoing sea trials, but will soon be ready to challenge for dominion of the oceans, whether above or below the waves......

Photographic evidence follows.

This correspondance is credited to special envoy SteelonSand.
Well done that Man!

You can find more of his great work with the Osman Pasha at his blog here:
http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2009/09/aquanefiness-part-2-ottoman-sub-osman.html