Hot Glue Stick Turrets

As I have mentioned previously, I struggle with making ship turrets and especially gun shields for my pre-dreadnought project. I have not been happy with the material used to make them. Rubber erasers sort of work, but even these are not perfect. 

Facebook posts these short videos (I assume they come from Tik Tock, or maybe segments from YouTube videos) that show people making tiny pieces of furniture, bicycles, and other objects out of scrap material. There is one guy in particular who uses hot glue sticks to make things. He isn't using them to glue things together but as material for when he needs a circular base. I started playing around with the glue sticks. It seemed to have similar properties to an eraser, but better. What I noticed was that its solid but not that hard to cut.  It seems harder than an eraser but is a little easier to slice. I can poke holes in it and it won't potentially tear, and when stuck a piece of wire into a hole to make a gun, the glue stick didn't deform as much as an eraser. This is particularly important when using thin slices to make gun shields. 

Results of my experiments 

First up is a basic cylindrical turret. One of the advantages of the glue stick over wood and cardboard is that I can line up the wires better so that they are more parallel. Very often the guns will not be parallel next to each other when using other other material. The translucent stick makes it easy to watch and control the angle of the needle as I poke holes in. 

The next type is a oval turret. After cutting consistent cylinders, I sliced off the edges on either side of the cylinder and then angled the end where the guns went into. One of the advantages of the glue stick over the eraser is that you can push and pull on the wire guns to help line them up better. An advantage of both the eraser and the glue stick is that you don't need to apply any glue to hold the guns in place. I doused the turret closest to the camera with superglue, but it didn't help one way or another. I think I was pretty consistent with slicing off the edges of the cylinder, but I think I can do better if I use a razor blade rather than my craft knife. 

Finally, I made some gun shields using the cut offs from the turrets above. I still need to practice but I think they are a big step up from what I have experimented with up to this point. The "carvibility" is equal to an eraser and there was much less distortion the shield when I pushed the wire through to make the gun.  

Final thoughts

I used mini glue sticks that have a diameter of 0.7mm. Standard glue sticks have a diameter of 12mm. I will probably buy a pack of the standard. It will give me a little more area in which to carve different shapes and give a little more surface area to build triple turrets or use slightly heavier gauged wire. I wish there was an even smaller diameter of glue stick. That would be useful for smaller turrets and things like sponsons. 

I have not glued the turrets to anything yet and was a little worried about whether superglue will stick to solid hot glue. However, the people making their little objects use superglue all the time to glue them in place so it should not be an issue. I do not expect painting to be an issue either. I think paint will hold to the glue fine. 

Fleet Review: Part Two, Krackovia

 Again, I've posted many of these in previous posts, but I decided to put them all together. 

Kracovia is the current rival to Avalonia. Their surprising naval victory over Avalonia has emboldened them to embark on a major ship building campaign.

First type of battleships. I was ambitious in adding secondary turrets. 

Second type of battleships. Secondary guns in casemates.

A coastal defense battleship that I posted awhile back. It is based loosely on the Turkish Mesudiye that was a central battery ironclad that underwent a major reconstruction. I classified it as a coastal defense battleship because it has two rather than four main guns. 

Protected cruiser. I would make a lot more cruisers but making mounted guns in gun shields is a real pain. I have earlier posts showing various experiments in making these. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make them efficiently and look reasonably well, please comment.

A gunboat based on a based on the imperial Russian gunboat Khrabri. Building masts are still a bit of challenge as can be seen in that stern mast. I use UV resin as glue to put together parts of masts, but sometimes, it gets to be a mess. 

Finally, torpedo boats. These were pretty quick to build. I have three more of these hulls and will complete those with an added torpedo tube sticking out of its bow. 

Fleet Review: Part One, Avalonia

Some of these I posted in the past, but I thought I'd present them all together. First up is the Commonwealth of Avalonia. Avalonia is made up of various sized islands. I have been working on a post on the various fictional nations. Some day, I'll get it posted. 

I am in the process of building some protected cruisers and armored cruisers. 

These two are near sisters. Both have 12" main guns. The difference between the two is the secondary armament. The right one has 6" guns in casemates. The one of the left is armed in 8"guns in turrets.

These two are armed with 14" main guns exposed in barbettes. 

I've already posted these two but these are older warships. Both are armed with 10" main guns.

This is an auxiliary cruiser converted from a ocean liner. It is armed with two 6" guns and four 4" guns.

I've also posted these destroyers, but I thought I'd repost them.

Last, here are some generic freighters and a liner. I built another one, but it seems to have disappeared. 

Next up, Avalonia's rival Kracovia.

The Fleet Continues to Grow

 I had my spring break. As in the past, I had plans to accomplish many things, but probably a fourth were accomplished. This included building a lot more ships. Like everything else in my hobby endeavors, I jump from one thing to another. I probably have ten ships at various stages of completion. That being said, I think I have enough built to finally have a sea battle. Of course I say that about a bunch of things. My previous post showed the work-in-progress of the protected cruiser and gunboat below.

Protected Cruiser

This ship is loosely based on the Russian protected cruiser Boyarin.

The differences are the greatly reduced ship's boats, and the secondary guns are peeking out of the bulwarks on the superstructure rather than sticking out on small sponsons. 

Gunboat

This is the second gunboat made. This one is based on the imperial Russian gunboat Khrabri. 

There were some rearrangements such as repositioning of the bridge from the forecastle to behind the mast, and the number of secondary guns due to size constraints. 

Latest ships on patrol

Destroyers

Destroyers of the time period are pretty generic looking. This is a plus because, barring color scheme, they can fit in with any navy. I guess since they are technically torpedo boat destroyers, their initial emphasis was on destroying torpedo boats and the carrying of torpedoes was secondary. I wanted one that took its torpedo duties seriously. So, I made one patterned after a British WWI destroyer that had twin torpedo tubes. 

I wasn't in the mood to mess with gun shields, so I just added blobs of thick UV resin on the middle part of them and quickly cured. This represents the wider part of the gun. It doesn't even have a flying bridge....lazy builder!

Older model on the left.

Several things I have noticed as I build these ships. Not surprisingly, old photos are a hit or miss, often a miss. Ship plans are far more useful but you are only getting a top view and a profile view. Sometimes, I cannot really tell what is going on, especially with the superstructure and bridge. In a lot of ways, photographs of models are the most useful, especially when paired with plans. I've had a lot of "oh, so that is what this structure looks like" moments. They really helped a lot and my increasing level of detail on these ship is due to using ship models as a source.

Game Board

I did manage to spend a day expanding my hex board. I needed to make new sections and paint the underside of the sea hexes a green. This way, I can flip over the sections to make land. 

Sea

Land

The sea side is more unified in color than the land side of the sections. I experimented a lot with different colored alcohol markers. I avoided acrylic markers except to highlight the edges of the hexes. The hex tiles are a thin wood and I was afraid that the acrylic paint would potentially warp the tiles. I tried different glues to put together the sections and the best seems to be contact cement. Super glue works but the tiles snap off too easily, and the glue from a hot glue gun dries way too fast. I have been doing my gluing in my garage with the door open. It helps with the fumes, though Gorilla Glue makes it in a tube form, so I cap it as soon as I put the bead of glue on the edge of the hex tile. 

I think I have enough hexes to a least get a 3' x 5' board done. I will use any extras to build islands, some of which will have forts on them. 

Ironclad Ram

 This is one of the fastest ships I've built so far. Normally, Friday nights are binge in front of the tv, but  because my wife is having to work late evenings for her company's annual "go live," I have free time.  At least this year, she gets to work at home. Last year, she had to go to the office and there were two nights where she was there until about 2 am! 

The ship is based loosely on the French ironclad barbette ship Marceau. 

Source: William Frederick Mitchell (1845–1914) - (1892).
 "France". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co..

Before:

After painting:

I unintentionally exaggerated the size and length of the ram. It looks like the front of Greek trireme. I made it out of Green Stuff epoxy putty.  The funnel is taller than Marceau, but that was because it originally was very short on my model and was below that of the ship's boat platform. The reason being was that I was worried that the boat platform would be too low and bump into the side guns, so I over compensated and made them higher than need be. The Marceau lacks a crane, but I was not sure how it retrieved its boats. Also, the ship's boats on the Marceau stick way out over the side of the ship, past the port and starboard guns. I didn't want to hide the guns, so I reigned them in. 

I learned my lesson from the previous ships that had guns mounted in barbettes and used a thinner wire. The Marceau was armed with 17 138mm secondary guns! My ship is armed with 12 secondaries. I didn't want it to look like a pin cushion. 

The other major difference between my model and the actual ship is that like most, if not all, French warships of the time, it had a pronounced tumblehome shape. My ship does not. Archduke Piccolo has a good tutorial on how to build tumblehome hulls, but I punted. Maybe the next time, I will give tumblehomes a try. 

Once again, I got carried away with detail. 

New Ships for the New Year

 Two more battleships ready to be painted.

Happy Close to New Years!

 In retrospect, it has not been an active blogging year. Could be due to a lot of things. I think one of the contributing reasons is that I wanted to focus my blogging efforts in posting after action reports instead of constant works in progress. Oh well. It is what it is.

A few end of the year odds and ends

Before I left for what might be our last annual Christmas trip to Chicago, I painted up these Eureka Miniatures orcs. I may have mentioned Eureka and a post long ago when they first came out with their line of 18mm fantasy. They seem to be first company to go gung-ho on the 18mm size. Early reviews said they were more like 20mm and didn't mix at all with other lines, so I never bothered to order any. Recently, there was a posting on the Facebook 15mm fantasy group that showed some of their orcs so I gave them a try. 

Here is a comparison shot of various manufacturers of orcs:

Left to right: 15mm dice, two Eureka orcs, Ral Partha
Europe (Demonworld), two Splintered Light Miniatures.

All seem to be compatible. The Demonworld orc has a cartoony head with a big lower jaw that looks like a throwback to Citadel orcs. 

Finally, the painted up version of the gunboat I showed in my previous post. 

Trip to Chicagoland

This year, my son joined my daughter and I to roam around downtown Windy City. It was a pretty warm day. Like last time, we had to visit the expensive stores on North Michigan Avenue, and we did stop at the three-story Starbucks for coffee (just what the world needs, right?). 

First we paid homage to the Bean in Millennial Park. It has an official title, but like many other structures in Chicago, the locals name things what they want. 

Afterwards, the kiddos were hungry for some lunch. Last year, my daughter and I went to have deep dish pizza, but we had that the night before. We ended up eating at a way overpriced Korean corndog place. They were good, but not $50 for the whole meal good. 

Massive $12 cheese pull

Me along the Chicago River standing next to a bust of the first non-native permanent settler, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Boy, do I look short and fat!

My kids, part 1. Behind them is the Wrigley Building. Corporate headquarters of the Wrigley Company, currently is still the largest maker of chewing gum in the world. Across the street from it is the Tribune Towers that was also built in the early 1290s. Interesting side, embedded into the lower facade of the Tribune Towers are famous bricks and stones from around the world. For example, there is a chunk of stone from the Great Pyramid in Giza, and one from the Great Wall of China. 

My kids, part 2. Here they are standing in front of the Marina towers, formerly known as Marina City. It was built in the mid-60s as a combination luxury apartments and offices. I got to go up there once as a kid. My parents had some friends that lived there. I remember listening to a Beatles album while my parents and friends drank Manhattans. 

Christmas market. In Chicago, its held every year in the plaza in front of city hall. Another famous large work of art is the Picasso Sculpture that is located on the plaza. It doesn't have an official name. Built in 1967, it was the subject to a lot of ridicule as people did not know what it was and found it too weird. But times have changed and its one of the iconic structures of the city. 

 My kids part 3. The Christmas Market is not very big and it was very crowded, considering it was December 23. But we got in, looked around, and had our dinner (brats and deep fried cheese curds...I snuck in a beer), which was much cheaper than lunch. I almost bought a cool beer stein but decided not to.

Gunboat Diplomacy

 I had not planned to do any more ship building or any other hobby activities for that matter for the rest of the year. Friday, we leave for our annual and probably last trip up to Chicagoland for Christmas holidays. I have been trying to get a million things done to prepare for the trip. Yesterday, a bunch of mishaps happened to my son, some in part to his ADHD. Long story short, he forgot his art project he's been working on to school and its due tomorrow. So, after getting all his other homework done, he started rebuilding his sculpture from ground zero. To speed up the process, I helped cut out some of the corrugated cardboard pieces while he glued it together with the glue gun. As I was wait to cut more things out, I spotted a small rectangle of scrap styrene board on my workbench that would be perfect for a ship base. *light bulb goes off*

I've been reading over the various David Manley pre-Dreadnought rules. I now own all the various campaigns.  Splendid Little War lists all the various warships for both the Spanish and Americans and were they were based. I noticed there were a whole lot of gunboats on both sides. I counted 14 American and 8 Spanish gunboats. I always envisioned gunboats as these stocky little ships with small caliber guns like the fictional USS San Pablo from the movie The Sand Pebbles (1966).

From: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/

But its seems like they were all over the place in terms of what they looked like and their armament. A lot of American ones were more like micro-cruisers.

So as I awaited carboard cutting jobs and encouraging my son to work carefully and not rush things, I ended up making a very generic one.

It took me all of about three hours to build. Two hours last night, and an hour this morning. I gave him two large guns (5.5" to 6") and two smaller guns (3.5" to 4.5"). The most complicated part was the darn ship's boats. They always look cool to add them, but for some reason, they are a pain. Plus, no cranes to handle them. 

I have not decided which navy to assign it to. I will probably paint it a rather generic color of a mid-gray hull and a white superstructure. 

Update on the Fleets

 I've been chugging away both building ships and expanding the size of the hex board. My plan is to initially use the portable naval rules for battles but I do have a shiny blue plastic tarp that I can use with David Manley's many rules. As I build them, they seem to improve in detail as I incorporate new techniques. As you can see, I got a little more fancy with the masts. This is practice for when I attempt to make sailing masts for some of the more older ironclad ships. 

The Commonwealth of  Avalonia finally got some more battleships:

These are based on the Royal Sovereign class battleships. I unintentionally exaggerated the size of the main guns, but I justify their size because they are 13.5" guns rather than the 12" guns that many battleships of the time had. The one thing I could not cram into the models were cranes for the lifeboats. One of them has its own steam pinnace:

Must be an admiral on board!

Laramidia got another cruiser. This protected cruiser was built off of the casts I made of the hulls. Again, I made the guns, this time the gun shields, way out of proportion to the ship. 

Here is a side-by-side comparison with a sort of sister ship I had made earlier using the same hull.

I have have two more of these hulls left, including the original master hull out of wood.

I completed two out of four small torpedo boats but have not assigned them to a particular navy.

I used Green Stuff epoxy putty to make the turtleback forecastles. I am happy with the way they turned out, but I want to try to make the next two with a bow torpedo tube sticking out. The two silver footballs on the side of the funnel are supposed to be Whitehead torpedoes. From what I can tell, they were not painted and the early torpedo boats launched them by dropping them off the side of the ship. I made my crude versions of them by soaking tissue paper in glue and rolling them between my fingers. Some came out a little fuzzy.

Last but not least is a a little steam pinnace. She was originally intended to be an added piece to a larger ship model, but it fit well in some impromptu dioramas I make on my workbench. So, I made a base for her and painted her up. Like the tugboat I presented in the previous post, she can be part of a harbor scene.