Boats
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Riverine
and Coastal Vessels |
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The
Queen Rose
from
Stone Mountain Miniatures - Sculpted
by Michele Rose.
Boats can play an important part
in Red Shadow scenarios, either in Mediterranean coastal actions, or in
the rivers of French Sub Saharan Africa.
This beautiful vessel is the latest
addition to the small miniatures navy lining my shelves - and it has become
my favorite
It is a very easy to build resin
kit made right here in Oregon.
It comes boxed and consists of light
weight resin castings.
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deck
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Engine house
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Upper deck
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Bridge house
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Roof
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Upper deck stairways (2)
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Gun shied
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In
addition to the resin parts, there is a small bag of white metal
parts comprising a
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Smoke stack
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Anchor
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Life rings (3)
There are conceivably a number of ways
that the kit can be put together, the curved part of the upper deck looks
natural facing the front or the rear. |
I chose to assemble mine as per
the photograph on the box, with the curved part of the upper deck facing
forward.
The edge of some of the casting were
slightly rough on one edge, presumably where the open end of the mold was
when the resin was poured. This cleaned up very easily though. The parts
fit well although there was a little gap between the under side of the
upper deck, and the engine room that it rests on. I briefly considered
filling this with milliput, but in the end decided that it would be unnoticeable
on the completed model - which turned out to be the correct decision.
I also considered not gluing all the parts, particularly the splinter
shield, which could be used or not as a scenario dictated. But after envisaging
the next battle, and having premonitions of me running around trying to
remember where I put it - I decides to glue everything in place - and super
glue worked just fine. |
I
should note that I did wash and dry all the resin first in some soapy water,
as it has been my experience in the past that mold release can stay on
resin parts, and paint wont stick to it. The washing removes it.
I base coated in black and painted
up in various weathered colors. I wanted a very rough look as I shall probably
be using this in sweaty rotten jungles of Dahomey, Senegal, Mali and the
Cote D'Ivoire - and rough and weathered looking seems more appropriate.
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It paints up very easily, and took
less than 20 minutes to complete. The relief is very deep creating a lot
of detail. Not viewable in the photographs is the fact that all the wood
planking has its grain on it, that shows up very realistically with some
dry brushing. Every deck plank has a nail/rivet at each end. All
around the edge of the |
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deck are little holes that look like they should have posts and rail
in them. These parts do not come with the kit, but were very easily added
using short lengths of florist wire with the ends looped. The holes in
the deck were drilled out slightly and the posts glued in. The railing
rope is just some twisted wire, painted and looped though the tops of all
the posts. I added the flag pole and a washing line -the cloths being drawn
on the computer, cut out and draped over the line.
The flag is from warflag - of course.
The barrels, crates and armaments
are just parts I had already available, and are laid on the deck for scenic
complement.
A nice feature I liked, is a deep
cut in the center of each stair way allowing a figure to be mounted on
his stand, halfway up the stairs.
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My
first impression when I saw the model, was that the deck was too wide -
but once all the figures are placed on it - that impression disappears
and it becomes quite obvious that Michele has put a lot of thought into
the layout. There is no place that figures cannot be placed. The vessel,
which is only a foot long, can easily accommodate fifty penny mounted figures.
Great for fighting ship to ship melee's.
At the rear of the ship at water
level are three mounting holes that look like something could be added.
Talking to Hugh, the proprietor of Stonehouse Miniatures, at Enfilade 2000,
he mentioned that he was considering a rear paddle wheel, and possibly
some side wheels, as optional add on's. This would be a fantastic addition.
I cant wait to ge this one into action
- keep watching the site for a custom scenario just for The Queen Rose.
The Queen Rose costs $75 and can
be obtained from
Stonehouse Miniatures
PO Box 68274
Milwaukee, OR 97268
or e-mail Hugh
Singh or phone him at (503) 799 2422
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The
majority of the images displayed in the "cast" section were taken on a
Nikon
Coolpix 900 Digital Camera.
Some
of the then were scanned on a flatbed scanner by laying the figure directly
on the glass.
In
order to make the page load times reasonable, some images have been reduced
for this page, the full size image can be accessed by selecting the image.
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