Floating Watermill
The Battle of Aspern Essling was hugely influenced by Austrian attempts at interdiction of Napoleons supply bridges over the Danube and the Lobau tributary's.
All manner of floating debris was launched at the flimsy bridges with frantic French attempts to intercept these objects before they broke the vital supply lines.
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One of these items was a large water mill of the type found locally, set on fire and launched at the French.
I wish to represent the importance of the Danube crossing as part of my narrative and to that end have typically digressed from the troops construction to this subject.
Mr Crynns did some research many years ago and this along with this link have proven invaluable.
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I also found an article showing a very nice model which seems to fit the bill.
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link
The first task was to construct the wheel itself.
By invoking my childhood model aeroplane constructions the wheels were scribed before fixing them to a central axle. I attached the central struts before cutting the hole needed for the axle to ensure it was true.
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The blades were then cut with recesses, and attatched to form the cylindrical mill wheel.
I then constructed the two hull halves, decked them out and test mounted the unit to see how it looked.
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The cabin was constructed from balsa with picture wire fittings.
I made the anchors with twisted copper electrical wire, picture wire and modelling chain.
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The idea will be to use real water if possible for the Danube, hence the draft.
I was investigating colour schemes as a lot of Danube boats appear to have a beige hull with brown stripes colouring.
However, I feel that this monster will be fine in a wood brown with a painted grey green housing similar to Mr Crynns's research.
A thin black wash with some green to represent algae finished off this unusual piece.
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Chris
takes the plunge.
