"Hordes of the Things Napoleonic airboat" Topic

Described as a balloon moved by sails and oars

Can anybody point me towards a suitable model for my 15mm army?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Good Lord.

It can look like anything you want it to look like.
Spartan Games had Sky Pirate vessels in their Uncharted Seas line that would work. Battle Valor Games makes a neat Dwarf Balloon as well as an airship.

Wargames Illustrated #334 (Aug 2015) had an article on building one for 28mm (IIRC).

Described where?

And what scale HotT?

I bet you're going to have to build it.

I'd start with a spherical balloon, more period. A ping pong ball or a sphere you buy at the craft store. You'll want to drape it with glue-soaked cotton thread in arrangements inspired by period balloon drawings. Easy peavey..

The basket/gondola could be balsa sanded into ship-shape, yardstick details. Masts go out to the sides and get paper sails. The sails could hang from one mast with the lower ends roped to the stern, or you could have spars above and below triangular sails, Da Vinci style.

Another possible design is two spherical balloons over a ship hull. I've seen that a few places, though I can't find it now.

This article has a contemporary cartoon of the airboats. Scoll down a bit on the right hand side.

link

I think I will just use a boat model and forget the balloon

It is, after all, kept aloft by magical forces

But thanks for the ideas anyway