Hunting Dinosaurs!

I promised my neighbour (of 10 yrs of age)  I would treat him to a game of hunting Dinosaurs. It resulted in a very enjoyable afternoon in which his Spinosaur ate my hunter, my Diplodocus trampled my other hunter and he bagged more giant Dinosaurs than anyone. He then launched an idea to have our hunters sneak through the jungle to our airship that proved even more thrilling (and a lot less dangerous) than shooting at the beasts!

Some impressions:

We used PEW PEW rules augmented with a special Dinosaur rule. Each turn the hunters rolled for spotting. On a 6 a dinosaur was found, rolled for on a table. On a 4 or 5 tracks were found and the hunters gained a track counter. Track counters give a +1 on a spotting roll per track counter. So eventually a 6 was inevitable. 

One of the results on the dino table was a caveman tracker, who would also gave a +1 bonus on the tracking roll.  

Building Walkure - a German aeronef part 3

The Grand Finale to Part 1 and Part 2: 

Here the propellers are fastened onto their magnet mountings. Zeppelins rarely had their engines fixed outside their hulls, because maintenance in the air would be too complicated. Instead, the engines were built into the hull and drove the props through an crank shaft. I decided to follow this as well, since that would result in smaller prop mounts. 

The material are plastic ends of closet rolls I collected some years ago because of their interesting shape. 

VSF of course means rivets. Lots of rivets. Insane amounts of rivets. Mind-boggling.... sorry. SO. Rivets. Quite a lot. Punched out of plasticard and glued in place one by one using a pin and a drop of superglue to dip them in.

Spraypainting as we go along. I was very lucky with the weather.

Some wheelhouse furniture: the telegraph.

 Here she is after attaching on the zeppelins and finishing painting the hull.

And here she is completely finished. Mast, tail fins and prop mountings are removable for storage and transport. The mast gained a crosspiece to accommodate both of the pretty flags a pal sent me. Nameplates, manufacturer's plates on the boiler and classic Imperial crosses were made from prints. Some hatches were made from plasticard as I found the deck a bit empty.

The dying hobby of scrap-booking provided me with a nice bow ornament.

And there she goes, to conquer Barsoom!

Building Walkure - A German aeronef part 2

Proceeding onwards from part 1: 

Using the wooden case of the deck house I added detail using cardboard and some steel rings. The flying bridge was going to be armoured and stairs would run up to the bridge on the outside of the deck house. 

The bridge/roof of the deckhouse can be removed and is fastened with magnets. 

Having finished the deck house, I started filling in the hull plates between the ribs of the hull. I used foamboard as this is light and sturdy and doesn't easily cave in when held.

See the ram bow taking shape, being built up around the MDF core.

Boiler and engine room as well as the axles that will end in the engines at the tips of the wings. The engines will also be held in place by magnets, as to enable easy removal for transport as well as tilting them.

MDF and paper really soak up paint, so you have to prime the stuff before painting to avoid wasting lots of good paint.

I tried out contrasting colours for the gasbags. I like it. Note the gun shields taking shape and the magnets for the engines in place at the ends of the wings.


The guns are from Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company. One should order from them because of the name only, actually, but their naval weapons are top notch.


Walkure will be armed with a Krupp 77mm (actually a Vickers 12-pounder), two Hotchkiss pom-pom quickfiring 37mm guns and two (very) early MG08 Maxim machineguns to discourage boarders.

As a response to the British Aphid class aeronef gunboat, Walkure will feature modern gun shields (a fancy novelty shunned by the Royal Navy) and armoured gun positions to protect the gun crews.



The deck is downloaded wood plank pattern and print. Not as pretty as engraving, but looks good and doesn't take much work.

The standing parts of the railings, drilled and cut (in that order). 

Glued into slots in the deck.

Armour plating (cardboard) protecting the gun positions.

Elastic string (stay good friends with the local haberdasher) will result in railings that always and easily stay taut (with a drop of glue at the right places).

And here Walkure is so far. All the larger parts in place, now is the time for detailing. Stay tuned for Part 3!