French Aquanefs

Some wonderful modelling inspiration here!

Montgolfier, Brumaire class submarine (link)

Vendémiaire, a Pluviôse-class submarine 

New range of Victorian coastal craft!

Now here is something that has caught my eye - a range of 1/2400 scale Victorian/ACW era craft by Tumbling Dice.  Cant see to find any pics of the range at the moment though:

ASV1 1st Rate 120 Gun Converted 3 Decker (1856) x1

• ASV2 1st Rate 120 Gun HMS Victoria (1859) x1
• ASV3 2nd Rate 90 Gun HMS Hero (1858) x1
• ASV4 2nd Rate 100 Gun HMS Duncan (1859) x1
• ASV5 Frigate HMS Phoebe (1859) x1
• ASV6 Frigate Souveraine (1859) x1
• ASV7 Frigate HMS Diadem (1857) x1
• ASV8 Small Frigate HMS Arrogant (1840) x1
• ASV9 Large Frigate HMS Galatea (1859) x1
• ASV10 Very Large Frigate HMS Mersey (1858) x1

http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/product-category/12400-naval/victorian-period-acw

British Frigate HMS Mersey

Confederate Aquanef

Hot on the heels of the Tsar's designers are the Confederate Aquanef builders!

CSS David Charleston 1865 - public domain image

Confederate inventors were the first on the board when William Cheeney developed a small three man submersible in the James River of Virginia in 1861 shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. A second, larger craft was developed by the same team and was similarly experimental. Cheeney’s craft were unsuccessful and were poorly documented although their existence was reported by Union spies. They were the first of a long line of curious craft...

Read more at Suite101: Confederate Submarines of the Civil War: From The CSS Hunley to the CSS David | Suite101.com http://christopher-eger.suite101.com/confederate-submarines-of-the-civil-war-a121370#ixzz1cXvIhRTT

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

Tsarist Aquanefs

I borrowed a book from the library this week: "Submarines of the Tsarist Navy: A Pictorial History", Edited by Spassky and Semyonov, 1998

http://www.ajarmsbooksellers.com/cgi-bin/ajarms/10922.html

This is a wonderful little book, delivering exactly what it promises with pictures and diagrams of the Russian Imperial Navy's submarine fleet up until the Bolshevik takeover.  Lots of great Aquanef inspiration inside and two designs which have caught my initial attention are:

Osetr (Lake) Class, 6 boats in class, built by a US firm 1903-106

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osetr_class_submarine

Delfin - the first Russian battle submarine, launched in 1902

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_submarine_Delfin

Turtlegg

A masterpiece of egg modelling indeed!

http://mastermodels.blogspot.com/2011/04/turtlegg.html

Aquanef sighted!

If you havent been keeping track of Mssr Blease's blog, you must go check out the goodies he has been preparing for the Aquanef demo game at SALUTE!

http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/french-aquanef.html

http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/escadrille-de-aquanef.html

http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/aquanef-sighted.html

http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/countdown-to-salute.html

Cant wait to see the action pics from SALUTE!

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

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

Turkish Aquanef 'Osman Pasha' launched

Steelonsand has gone to town in a rash of creativity, recreating the Turkish Aquanef I posted here the other day. The result, mostly using eye drop pipettes, is fantastic - I can't wait to see this lovely all painted up and ready for battle!

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2009/09/aqua-nefiness-quick-scratch-build.html

Cerberus in 1/1200

Inspired by my research into the real ship, I broke out my long neglected 1/1200 scale Cerberus by Brigade Models, and a lovely casting it is too.


The model comes in 5 separate parts: hull, 2 main turrets, breastwork superstructure and mast. All part were very crisply cast with no flash at all. All fit together nicely with no filler required. One particularly good feature is that the breastwork structure fits over the turrets, which in tun have a peg and hole fitting. This means that they the turrets can be painted and fitted without gluing, so they can rotate freely.


I painted the model prior to assembly, undercoating in white. I went for a traditional RN paint scheme, and as accurate to the real ship as possible. The hull was therefore black, the armour, superstructrue and deck fittings white, gun muzzles dark grey, mast and funnel ocre and the deck a faded wood colour. Finally, I added a RN White Ensign to the masthead (again by Brigade) and fitted her to a base in the style of Mssr Ogrefencer (name and flag yet to be fitted). A smallish wake befits a vessel of 10kts max speed - no big bow waves for Cerberus! Then again, nobody should ever rush a lady...

This model represents Cerberus as she appeared in the late 1880s, after her mast reconfiguration (in 1878) and the addition of the torpedo spars and nets (in 1887). I must admit that as a result of my research this became more of a modelling project than a wargaming one, but the overall effect is quite realistic I think and I'm looking forward to her first tabletop battle.

Ironic then that my first Aquanef fleet unit is a surface unit! There are also 4 Russian units about half done and I just found some Navwar 1/1200 ACW ships (again courtesy of Mssr Ogrefencer, thank you Sir!) which will be joining us soon...

Nordenfelt class Turkish Submarine

Thorsten Nordenfelt built the Nordenfelt II (Abdülhamid) in 1886 and Nordenfelt III (Abdülmecid) in 1887, a pair of 30 metre long submarines with twin torpedo tubes, for the Ottoman Empire navy. Abdülhamid became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo while submerged under water. Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with the Nordenfelt IV which had twin motors and twin torpedoes. It was sold to the Russians, but proved unstable and ran aground off Jutland; when the Russians refused to pay for it, it was scrapped.

Abdülhamid and Abdülmecid were found by Germany in Istanbul in 1914. The submarines were briefly considered for use in harbour defence but it was found that their hulls were too badly corroded.

Featherstone Naval rules released

The original classic is back - Huzzah indeed!

This book introduces wargamers to the fun of naval games. Using straightforward rules that reflect the period and encourage historical tactics, the rules in the book avoid the overly complex path that some later naval rules took.

This book contains over 15 sets of rules:

Tony Bath's Ancient Naval Rules
Summary of the Fletcher Pratt Naval Rules
Jack Scruby's Napoleonic Rules
Combined arms campaigns
Naval games for tactical training
Summary of the Fred Jane Naval Wargame
Discussion of operational choices

This revised edition includes:
A new set of coastal warfare rules for 1939-45 by David Manley
A new foreword by David Manley.

http://www.johncurryevents.co.uk/books/featherstonenaval/homepage.htm

Diving Suit mods?

How cool are these pulp style SF Power suits?

I bet they would make a great basis for conversions to Nemo-esque deep sea diving suits!

More Aquanef inspiration!

This page is virtually a flyer for Vanvlak industries R&D department!

http://www.upcool.com/sci_tech/Amazing_Submarine_Concepts_PICS_

Ictineo II

A very cool model of the World's First Steam Powered Submarine, from 1864

http://scalemodel.net/Gallery/IctineoII.aspx

VSF Ironclad Fleet

These have been out for a few months but in case you missed them, check out the Iron Dwarves Fleet, part of the "Uncharted Seas" fantasy naval game by Spartan Games.

My favourite would have to be the Gun Frigates which screams VSF so loudly I'm ordering a Squadron for Aquanef!

Plus the Belcher class submersible of course...but sadly they arent available yet.

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/#/irondwarves/4529569623

Awesome Aquanefs

This guy is simply amazing. Go grab a towel now for all the drooling you are about to do!
Among his many fantastic models, are these fantastic Aquanefs:

The Nautilus, from Jules Verne's descriptions and the original illustrations

The French submarine Dupuy de Lome

The Alligator

You simply must visit, "Steam Noir" here:
http://www.freewebs.com/steamnoir/submarines.htm

Into the Abyss

A short story by..

H.G. Wells

In the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, we are not alone...

http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a1047.pdf

Aquanef Inspiration

I found this pic on my hard-drive the other day, saved from goodness knows where (please tell me if you know). I absolutely love it - very Nemoesque and great Aquanef insipration.

Alhazared's Victorian Landships!

Some splendid Landships and a dazzling undersea battle!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/banging1out/tags/victorian/