25mm Monorail

This past weekend I was able to make considerable progress on a number of projects. The subject of this particular post is a 25mm scale monorail inspired by the Patiala State Monorail Tramway.

Rolling Stock

As mentioned in a previous post, my first inspiration was the RAFM Cyclops land wheeler converted to an armoured draisine as used on European Railways in the 20's and earlier. I had some ideas on this but also needed some regular rolling stock. Digging around the bits box - or bits shelf in my case I came across these cheap HO (1/87) scale north American prototype cars. I bought them and other assorted bits for a couple of dollars at a yard sale.  At 25mm (1/64), they are very close to the 6' width used on the Patiala.

Breaking out the razor saw, filler and epoxy putty results in this:

I am very happy with the gondola and flat car. Though the gondola is of metal and not wood construction, it has that toy like quality of its inspiration.  Key to making these cars was realising that I am making what are effectively terrain pieces and not actual model trains. The wagons will not have functioning wheels underneath just alignment blocks to keep them on the rail. The wheels on the original scale out to 1/16" radius and are not visible from most angles.  I am not entirely happy with the passenger car as it is a little too short for 25mm figures to fit in without bending down their heads. Not very comfortable for my pewter passengers. I will keep it for the moment with the intent of replacing it in the future. I might plate over the windows to turn it into an armoured troop car with firing slits.

Also in shot is the Cyclops in its draisine configuration with the rear wheel well faired over with epoxy. To its left is the remains of an HO locomotive power bogie. This will be reassembled to go under the Cyclops. The actual Patiala locomotive drive wheels can't be seen easily, but that look didn't really work here so I went with something beefier. As of this writing, the epoxy hadn't hardened up (cold in the garage where I do my work) so further conversion is pending. 

A proof of concept shot:

The wheels are spares from the Cyclops kit propped up against the wagons to test the look. When I started this project, I thought that more prototypical wagon wheels would be easily available from the Dollar Store. I went to three different stores thinking I could pick up a couple of cheap plastic farm wagons or stagecoaches but no luck. Cow herding and farming being out of fashion with today's youth apparently. I have written RAFM with a request to get some of their artillery wheels for the project as well as more Cyclops wheels for a VSF/Steampunk Saladin armoured car.

Trackwork

In the shot below is some HO/OO set track that also came with the loco and rolling stock. I measured the amount of tie projecting out from edge of the two rail track, set that as the offset on my scroll saw and ran the sections through. There was a little bounce from the blade action that gave a raggety look to the ties that fits in with hurriedly and cheaply laid rail. A band saw would give a smoother cut. I did not use the set track as I have a box of flex track to play with that gives longer continuous runs and tighter radius curves.

 

The next shot is the MDF combined railway roadbed and road way with the track line and road edge marked in. These are of course wrong as I discovered once I thought about it. The monorail is "handed" in that the track runs along the left hand edge of the adjoining road. This means that on a right hand curve, the supporting wheel is on the inside edge but on a left hand curve it is on the outside so the radii and placement of the track and road need to be adjusted accordingly. The widths and offsets were calculated from the prototype and the curves are designed so that a 90^o curve fits within a 12"x12" block.

 

Track laying and ballasting up. I stuck the track down with contact cement. Unexpectedly, the glue failed in shear when I was trimming the rail ends so the track needed to be re-glued and pinned. This is not an issue with normal flex track as it has holes in the ties for nails - holes that I had trimmed away earlier. The ballast itself is some very fine sand and dirt I have lying around as I am too cheap  frugal to go buy real ballast. It is wetted down with wet water - water with a couple of drops of soap to break the surface tension - then flooded with dilute PVA medium. The effect was not quite what I was looking for but I will live with it for now (which beats scraping it all off).

 
The result. There is a lot more work to do especially with the road way. I am going to make up a card form with the road profile cut out to shape the road a little more cleanly before sticking everything down.

To date this is one of those projects that gets better as you go along but will probably not do again.

More to come.

Hordes of fun

This Sunday past, I was able to get out to the local club for a Hordes of the Things Tourney. I have been a bit reluctant before because the majority of the games played are either with rules or in periods I am not really interested in. But I ponied up my membership fee and got stuck in.

Well let me back track a bit. Friday I realized that I didn't have a stronghold to put on the table. With a DVD coaster, a re-purposed paper clip holder and some Das clay, I made up a burial mound that I hoped would suitably impress my opponents. After the clay dried I added a base coat of brown then acrylic medium and flock. Sunday morning I awoke early to do the final dry brush and found that I had used gloss acrylic medium. What was meant to be an imposing barrow was in fact a sparkly fairy hill. The only matte varnish to hand was an ancient pot of Tamiya flat base - which has a tendency to go white when applied with a brush - but I was feeling lucky so on it went. Half an hour later I had a barrow that while no longer sparkly was now suitable for deployment on the Siberian steppes in winter. Several fast washes and some dry brushing later, I managed to get something not entirely laughable for the table.

So to the tourney. Today was to be a relaxation day and that means a Kilt day! I topped my camo kilt with a Hobgoblin t-Shirt and Marc was decked out in his Hung like a Norse T and jeans. The club (Ottawa Miniature Gamers) recently moved its game space to a local Freemason's Hall. The building is quite beautiful and well maintained. To keep up with the costs, the Masons rent rooms to many different groups. This being our first time there, we went through the front door and right into a Charismatic Christian Church service. I don't know what they made of us but we were definitely in the wrong place.

We went around the back where ruffians such as we are more likely to be welcome and found the proper place. We were given a hearty welcome by both club members and a couple of Masons there to observe a Poland 39 game. There may have been a raised eyebrow or two at the kilt but s*d 'em - the Celts are here!

There were 5 of us playing:

• Mike - High Elves
• Brian - Undead
• John - Undead Hordes
• Marc - Gallic Behemoths
• Me - Ulster Cycle Irish

A quick set of rolls saw me facing Marc and his coffee-ground monsters. This time he managed to get his god on the board and pummel Cú Chulainn to a pulp. In return I managed to rack up a pretty good body count though. As one of the losers, I was tagged to sit out the next round but was able to see the other games and act as a floating ref. This was actually pretty cool as anyone who wasn't playing stuck around to help out rather than wandering off.

Lunch was called after the second game. Not knowing the protocol, I had packed a lunch (bacon sarnies and a thermos of tea) but others bulked ordered pizza at $7 a head - a pretty good deal I need to remember in future.

Lunch eaten, it was back to the fray. Next game was against Mike's Elves. We had more or less stopped rolling for terrain placement. The board we were on had a river on one side and as defender, Mike had set up his Elven spear on the other side of the river from his stronghold. I took advantage of this split and massed everything on one side with Ferdiad my hero general on the far flank. The centre locked pretty tight with the Elven spear slowly moving up toward the ford so they could get into the fray. Ferdiad ran out on the flank until he was menaced by some Elves in a small wood. I left him there while we contested the centre - me grinding down the Elves while Mike hurried his spear up. I got a 6 for pips and moved Ferdiad towards the Elven stronghold then another 6 getting him into contact. My first attack on the stronghold failed with a stick result. Mike rolled very poor pips and couldn't intervene. The second attack went through ending the game.

My third and final game was against John's Undead Horde army. He had chosen an alternate list wherein all
his troops except for the necromancer general were at -1 to Magicians - Cathbad the druid in my case. We got stuck in pretty quickly and my double depth warband ground away at bone while Cathbad sniped away at undead knights. John's list allowed him to bring back any undead lost in combat on a six, but he failed to retrieve a single casualty in the whole game. I moved a hero general into overlap which combined with the warband's impetuous follow up was enough to punch through the undead lines. John tried repeatedly to ensorcel my hero but again the dice were against him. In the end I killed 12 AP for the win.

At the end of the day, despite only playing three games and losing one of those, I won on points for casualties caused. They may not be flashy but those warband really grind away at the enemy. However, I didn't get to face Brian's undead with fliers - that would have been a very different fight.

Having some time left, Marc and I hung around to watch some of the Poland game - very tempting and the Lardie's rules have some very interesting mechanics.

A good day.