"15mm "Scientific Artillery"" Topic

In the Hive, Queen and Country Universe Babbage Engines and rifled ordnance have been combined to provide long range accurate artillery systems (they are slow to react to changes in the battlefield, so are generally of use in seige warfare). I'm looking for miniatures to use for these in 15mm. Is there any VSF heavy artillery in this scale or light artillery in 25/28mm? It shoul look big and heavy on the table, have the ability to fire at high angles and if possible have some really geartastic fire control equipment on the carriage. Large metal wheels are a plus as well.

Thanks
Terry

i would suggest that first you look at Stone Mountains 15mm ACW seige and naval guns. Very large guns. This might meet your needs.

If not I would still consider naval guns as they are bulky and imply 'slow'.

As Rudy says, a big honking rail-mounted naval gun would be an impressive piece of hardware on the tabletop, and it could go anywhere the rails go. Alternatively, large crude tracked guns look good in a VSF setting.

Just about any large 15mm or 28mm gun would do, from the ACW through WWI, as long as all of the details are scaled for 15mm minis. I'll let others suggest guns to use, as I'm not familiar with 15mm artillery.

Personally, I'd be tempted to use the 1/72 Minicraft-Hasegawa "Leopold" picture or "Karl" picture with appropriate VSF details added. I don't know if the kits are still available, but they pop up regularly on Ebay. If you don't like the idea of rail-mounted guns, you could remount them on a tracked VSF chassis.

Whether the guns travel by rail or tread, I think you'd need:

o One or more guns, obviously. The guns should be equipped with scratchbuilt "black boxes" containing equipment that uses signals from the Babbage Engine to aim and fire the guns.

o One or more dedicated ammunition boxcars or vehicles. These can be painted red, labelled appropriately, and parked off to the side. There are HO model railroad decal sets for "Ammunition," "Explosives," "Dynamite," "Danger," and so on that would enliven the models.

o Smaller vehicles with cranes, used to ferry the ammo from the ammo vehicles to the guns. Use any small VSF vehicle with a crane added, or modify an HO scale model of an early, crude bulldozer.

o A special "Babbage Car," a boxcar or other vehicle filled with lots of VSF equipment to represent the Babbage Engine itself. The vehicle should have extra sound-proofing and specialized shock absorbers, perhaps represented by large external-mounted hydraulic tubes, to keep the Engine well protected from shocks when traveling, and when the gun is firing. (Big guns make a big shock wave. Reference "The Guns of Navarone.")

o A coolant car with equipment to keep the Babbage Engine from overheating, if that's a potential problem.

o Large tubes and cables running from the coolant car to the Babbage Car, and from the Babbage Car to the black boxes on the guns.

Additional ideas if you want to go all-out:

o Well appointed private railcars or vehicles for the Babbage engineers.

o Other passenger and supply vehicles for traincrew, workers, repairmen, and soldiers to protect the guns while traveling and when deployed in the field.

o Flatcars and boxcars, or other vehicles, loaded with spare rails, ties, and other equipment and parts.

o Ack-ack cars, if air attacks are a possibility.

As jpatter2 said WWI guns work well and there's some biggies out there.

Here's one of mine:

link

link

I've always thought that the Russian WWII 203mm howitzer would provide a great basis for a VSF conversion. Just stick a few VSF-type thingies on it.

Here it is in 15mm, scroll down to the 4th pic:

TMP link

For some smaller-scale Mad Science, get the Warp Cannon blister for GW's Warmaster Skaven. The ratboys come molded as separate pieces, so no annoying removal, and the guns themselves occupy a footprint fairly close to 20mm by 40mm. They are pretty horizontal-firing, though, and look rather like lightning throwers.

Excellent ideas, although a 1/72 scale rail gun would be really immense in 15mm scale. The logistical equipment ideas are great and the Russian 203mm howitzer a pretty good place to start.

As I progress on this I'll add a section to hivequeenandcountry.com. There is already some information on 15mm VSF modeling there.

I think I've seen the big german guns in 1/144 from Dragon models, so they're not *quite* such giants on the field.