"6mm futuristic ekranoplan models for Ogre?" Topic

I just learned about the Caspian Sea Monster today:

It got me thinking that a theater of war missing from the Ogre/GEV universe is the sea. The milieu is already full of GEVs, why wouldn't there be GEV naval forces as well?

I'm at a loss where to find suitable stubby-winged aeroplane-like models to use as sci fi futuristic Last War ekranoplans. Any suggestions?

- Ix

Got me. Because it would absolutely be cheating to buy cheap toy store aircraft and cut off some portion of the wings, and certainly no one would swap wings, adding a little green stuff to cover gaps.

OGREs might be able to operate underwater. In fact, I think they previously made a model of an OGRE mast sticking out the water.

There are rules for an Ogre Stratofortress out there already.

Look here for something that might work:

link

Personally I would use a Star Blazers model. Something like this:

link

GEV battleship that is still able to float.

How bout this:

link

From this:

link

In action:

link

That's cool!

- Ix

OGREs might be able to operate underwater. In fact, I think they previously made a model of an OGRE mast sticking out the water.

I have some of those. I also have some extra Ogre sensor towers, so I plan to make one each for the Mk.IV and Mk.VI.

The "swimmer" towers are cool, but Ogres are land vehicles, and I'm actually talking here about developing an interesting realm of naval combat in the Ogre era. The ubiquity of tac nukes would suggest big, expensive surface warships are more liability than benefit, and the oeuvre posits that airpower has been pretty much negated. That suggests an interesting project to figure out what form naval power would take. And of course, this being more fictional art than science, it's important to adhere to the themes of the oeuvre.

GEVs have been in use on water for generations, and work just fine on calm seas, so there's no reason to posit anything other than variations on the SJG rubber-skirt air cushion cavalry tanks for littoral operations. The open ocean is a different circumstance, however.

GEVs with rubber skirts are useless on water if there's much swell. Ekranoplans have proven better, but still tend to be stranded by high sea states, and too rough in even moderate swell, which has prevented them from becoming ubiquitous in maritime commerce. However, a global oceanscape emptied of large warships by cheap & powerful smart weapons might change the calculus and make fast, ground-hugging vehicles a more interesting proposition. An ekranoplan has a maximum theoretical altitude roughly equivalent to its wingspan, but real-world ekranoplans never get very high. With super-powerful future engines, really big ekranoplans could theoretically still be mobile in big swell.

Until yesterday, I didn't realize anyone had built such a huge ekranoplan. Boeing has plans for an even bigger one, that addresses many of the problems with transoceanic ground effects vehicles:

The Boeing Pelican is a true aircraft without any floatational capacity, which is somewhat the wrong design direction for an era of empty skies, but most of its other characteristics are good guides to the performance and capacities of large ekranoplans.

- Ix

I imagine large swimming craft would have to stay underwater to avoid detection and vulnerability to airborne and spaceborne weapons platforms, so the "ships" of the Ogre era would probably all be subs. I've read some fiction about an all-submarine naval war in the future which can guide my thinking.

The genre posits that Ogres have to be big to justify the cost, so Krakens would probably have to be big cybersubs armed with missiles and smart torpedoes, and maybe also nuke-resistant armor and anti-missile weapons. But I'll give some thought to justifying a cyber-ekranoplan too. Or maybe a cyber-hydrofoil makes more sense.

I haven't yet found a way to make submarine warfare fun to game with miniatures, so I'm disinclined to pursue this very far. Ekranoplan "sea cavalry" zipping around the surface sounds more fun to game. Archipelagos, amphibious landing operations, and near-shore interceptions should provide more interesting terrain contexts than austere expanses of open sea.

- Ix

These ekranoplans are a bit slow, but more like the size and shape I'm thinking for Ogre-era "sea cav": YouTube link

look up ekranoplan on shapeways.

I thought the Ekranoplans did about 250-350mph?

Long time since I saw the program about the Caspian Sea Monster though

AFAICT most military ekranoplans have had max speeds in the 250-350 mph range, and cruise speeds in the 150-250 mph range. I imagine Ogre-era ekranoplans would be even faster, though I think there is probably a practical limit close to the speed of sound, and there might be speed limits if the ship is trying to stay low (to avoid detection, shots from over the horizon, etc.).

- Ix

I looked up ekranolpans on Shapeways, and found a lot of models of actual ekranoplans. I'm looking for fictional ones.

A lot of science fiction fighters have stubby wings or flat profiles and look vaguely ekranoplanesque.

A couple of the aircraft models in the CAV line by Reaper Miniatures look promising. Does anyone know how big those are?

- Ix