"Da Vincian Science Fiction?" Topic

Does anyone do such figs, prefereably in 25/28mm?

What is Da Vincian SF?

Not much that I have seen. For the most part you are talking about Ren. figures and then a few clever war machines. I have seen a Wargames Illustrated picture showing a convention game featuring many of Da Vinci's creations and imaginings.

Allen57

An army featuring warmachines based on the sketches and designs of Leonardo DaVinci

I think you are talking about a renaisssance army with a lot of scratchbuilding

For example there is the tank, but that will be a problem as the wooden slats are tapered, bit of a swine to make, there are flying machines (scouts) archers using shields, ginormous siege crossbows etc

I played in a game at ColdWars a few years back (the GM's name was Peter) and he had a fantastic set up of DaVinci machines. I asked him about his armies and everything was stock Renaissance figures. He stated that his tanks, steam gun, aeroplanes etc were all scratchbuilt so I think you are on your own for scratchbuilding. THere is a book called DaVinci's Machines that was out a couple years ago with very good reconstructions of some of his drawings that you could use as a basis to construct your own. Good luck!

Someone (Ral Partha?) used to make the tank in 15mm, but that was ten years ago. GW had 28mm "Birdmen of Catrazza" in their pseudo-Italian mercenary army back in the same time period, which might be suitable for flying crossbow troops.

First, do a TMP search for "Leonardo". You will fond at least a dozen threads.
I have played a few convention games with "Leonardo Plus" rules, and I even purchaed a copy. The rules are frankly, quite clunky, but who cares? The ruels booklet is about half modeling ideas anyway. There are diagrams on how to build the tanks and so on.

This has been a back burner project of mine for years now. Maybe, eventually, I will get around to it!
I think GASLIGHT rules are ideal for this, particularly "Battles by GASLIGHT".
Warhammer or Waken the Storm would work well, too.

Your force should be at least 95% "ordinary" troops, but that can be gaudy Landsknechts, Gendarmes, Knights, etc.
As mentioned above, get some Warhammer Dogs of War Birdme of Catrazza. There is nothing like ineffective flying things to totally distract an opponent. I remember a game where someone showed up with Ral Partha Landsknechts posed to hold a pike in the overhead position. The gamer had added a daVinci pyramidal tent parachute, gicing us … Landsknecht Fallschirmjaegers! Out of the squad that jumped from the airship, 2 did not go >SPLAT< and the worried target wasted half his forces hunting them down.

I would also recommend consulting the Victorian Science Fiction area for ideas on constructing airships, and so on.

Here's the stuff I built to give you some inspiration. It is scaled to go with 40mm Meisterzinn Homecast figures.
(It's all for sale, too if anyone is interested.)

link

I was inspired by playing a fairbit of Rise of Legends on the PC. Looks like I'm in for a lot of scratch building.

My Warhammer Army was Cult of Ulric which let me use my Vikings as Cultists with Norman Knights and a few Specials.

When that became a mcuh less interestign Army in the next Warhammer I decided they should be Middenheimers, the primitive bit of the Empire.

I made a Steam Tank out of poundland(dollar store) construction bits for a frame, used plastic pen and other bits for a boiler and cannon and had a few free Empire plastic troops so they got a gunner. The Armour was made of wooden coffee stirrers.

Soem more of the plastic Imperials got modified into a gin crew, featuring a linstock made out of a paper clip.

THe cannons I was imspired by Mythbusters. Using a stickI found outside our flat I made tree truck cannons. A kind of air dry modelling clay, also from the pound store, made for an earth base to ram the tree trunks in.

This isn't directly applicable to you, exempt how to get materials for your tank, but this kind of mad setting is fun.

Depending on what scale you play I have seen table tennis balls used for making ballons. If using a larger scale perhaps your flying craft would have a few small balloons rather than one big one, so four table tennis balls rather than one

Under the ENGINES OF WAR section of the Black Army Productions website, you'll find the notice (at the bottom) "EW06 – Da Vinci's Tank COMING SOON!" No image or expected date of release, though. link

I've been hoarding "Birdmen of Catrazza" and some other interesting bits of GW's Empire range, as well as Grenadier's Fantasy Warrior "Men at Arms", just in case a set of rules were published on the subject.

I've played in Peter Frechtling's games of Leonardo plus at Cold Wars. Lots of fun.Many people dont care for those rules,but they certainly have a lot of inspiration.Also numerous web sites,here's one for inspiration:
link

skinkmasterreturns: Thanks for the link, but "Not Found – The requested URL /Leonardo/machines.eng.php was not found on this server." Any other suggestions?

It was my understanding that Peter Frechtling's games of Leonardo plus were heavily modified from the original rules.

Lets try this again-
link

Make sure to go down the whole page,there are many of his non-military ideas as well(still interesting).Tanks,steam cannons,mechanical soldiers,scythed chariots,as well as flying machines.

Thanks, skinkmasterreturns!