PONTOON BRIDGING EQUIPMENT.

 PONTOON BRIDGING EQUIPMENT FOR THE WOODSCREW MINIATURE ARMY.

Regular readers will recall I mentioned a while ago that I had decided to investigate the provision of pontoon bridging equipment for my armies. This was provoked by Ion of Archduke Piccolo blog when he wargamed a campaign from my Imagi-Nations series early last year. One of his background questions was whether my armies had a bridge building capability. I replied in the negative but the thought stayed with me that maybe such a capability should be provided.

Ever since I have been looking, without success, for some everyday object that could be adapted for use as a pontoon boat. I did find a model in a manufacturers range but really did not like it that much. Recently I posted asking if readers had any ideas. Steve Johnson suggested I consider 3D models and Ian Dury suggested I look at ebay where a number of 3D printers were offering model railway accessories including model rowing boats. This was something I had not considered.

A quick look revealed a manufacturer supplying rowing boats in N gauge which seemed suitable. I made contact with the supplier and got the measurements of their boats which seemed perfect. I decided to order a pack of 6 boats just to be sure. While looking at the various other products available from this business I also found OO scale pallets, in packs of 30,  which looked like perfect "chesses" for the bridge decks so I ordered a pack of them too.  My original idea was to just use bits of cut up toothpick to represent the "chesses".  

(Chesses are the name used for the bridge deck timbers, apparently from the old French words chasse meaning frame and chassis meaning framework.)  

These items arrived just before Christmas and have proved to be top quality and ideal for my needs. 

Four boats and ten pallets provide a perfect 65 mm long, scale 32 foot bridge as shown below.

I quickly designed a new flat bed wagon and flat bed heavy trailer to transport both boats and "chesses". My idea is that each of my 16 Pioneer battalions will be provided with a bridging platoon comprising a wagon and trailer carrying four pontoons and another wagon and trailer carrying  ten "chesses". The four Pioneer battalions in each army would therefore have the collective ability to build a bridge some 250 mm long which is about scale 125 feet or around 40 meters.  Manpower to build the bridges would be provided by the existing Pioneer battalion soldiers. I prefer this arrangement rather than the alternative of creating dedicated bridging columns.

Below are photos of the new wagons, unpainted and without horses so far, showing the pontoons and "chesses". Just for clarification, the boats and "chesses" will be glued to the wagons and the illustration at the beginning of this article of a completed bridge was only a "proof of concept".

Close ups of the two specific loads are below. I found that two boats fitted on each vehicle and looked better too. I decided I prefer the look of having the boats the right way up however I understand from Ian Dury that most armies carried them upside down. Any views ?????

Each "chess" vehicle carries 5 "chesses". To make it look more interesting the top pallet is turned over.

It has crossed my mind to revise the arrangements to have a wagon with boats towing a trailer with "chesses".....any thought on whether this would look better ????

I am very pleased with these new models and hope readers will agree this new equipment looks good.  Many thanks to Ian Dury and Steve Johnson for pointing me in the right direction.

I have just placed an order for another 58 boats and 130 pallets with the supplier who is Cliff at "3D pluss" on ebay. Cliff makes a fascinating and very wide variety of model railway accessories in OO and N gauge, many of which, in my opinion, could have military modelling applications and he has proven to be prompt and cooperative in responding to my enquiries.

I will post photos of fully painted up vehicles as soon as possible.

3D Printing of  Miniature Heavy Weapons.

As reported previously I have now used 3D printing to produce heavy machine guns for my army.

I have explained in other postings that all the artillery weapons in my army have been constructed using a readily available object as a gun shield and chassis to which  I attach an axle, trail and barrel. For this platform my field guns use a cut down plastic shelf support stud, heavy guns are based on a paint tin clip while horse artillery guns use a home produced resin cast of a trail spade from an Airfix 5.5 inch gun. However I have never been able to find a platform for my heavy weapons machine guns. As a consequence I have previously had to superglue axle, trail and gun shield together carefully, avoiding the inclusion of my fingers whilst trying to produce a realistic looking model.

Recent internet surfing brought my attention to 3D printing. After a little research I concluded that it may, subject to cost, provide a way forward in respect of  a platform for heavy weapons. I found a local supplier of 3D printing services and made contact. It turned out that this small local business owner had been involved in producing wargaming scenery using 3D printing so my requirements became a little easier to explain, just imagine explaining to a non wargamer or modeller just what I was seeking !!!!!! The upshot was that I built a prototype platform as carefully as possible and met up with Dave the business owner. My initial idea was that he could scan the prototype and print from that programme. However Dave told me me it would be better, and no more expensive, for him to write a CAD programme using the prototype as a guide. In addition, the original prototype included a gun barrel. Dave told me the printing process did not allow protrusions as these could droop due to the heat during printing.. I therefore removed the barrel leaving just the hole as part of the model. Dave gave me some cost indicators that were fully within my budget  so I agreed for him to go ahead and write the CAD programme and print some pre production models.

The pre production models were created and I found them perfect in all respects. Dave confirmed the final costs which I agreed and he proceeded into production. About ten days later I collected the printed models and paid my bill. The following photo shows what I got.

I had four sheets like this together with a number of pre production models and some others that had come apart from the flimsy base sheets. Apart from the holes in the shields for barrels the models also had the towing eye in the trail. The next steps were to separate the models, clean off the sprue and add the gun barrels. For barrels I use small elongated plastic necklace beads from Hobby Craft. I found that the holes for the barrels had to be reamed out a little but that was good as it gave a tight fit so that dripping a little plastic glue around the joint was easier.

The  picture above shows part of the initial batch of 32 with barrels installed. Next step was to drill the holes in the axles for the wheels, (cut down drawing pins) and superglue them as shown below.

With construction complete I primed the whole of each model.

The models were then painted my standard olive drab and then the wheels were painted black. The final result is shown in the photo below.

The picture below gives a good idea of the level of detail in these models which are only 22mm long and 10mm high and the same in width.

There were some leaning points during the process. Firstly the printing material was ABS which is similar in consistency to Airfix plastic soldier figures. It proved time consuming to remove the base sprue which may have been easier if a harder substance had been used, maybe more like Airfix plastic kit material. Secondly the drilling of the axles for wheels was difficult as the plastic, being so soft, melted a bit. On reflection, it would have been easier if I had had the holes printed or again, a harder material had been used. Finally the material was gray, virtually the same colour as my primer, so it was a little difficult to see exactly what I had actually painted than if a different but still pale colour had been used.. All  that said I am delighted with the models and these leaning points are simply the result of experience and in no way detract from Dave's excellent work.

Finally the technical details. I ordered 200 models. The total cost, including the CAD creation, was £50 which I thought very reasonable indeed. The print resolution was 150 microns, about twice the size of a human hair.

My supplier was david.banks@telford3dprinting.com. whom I strongly recommend and thank for his assistance and very helpful attitude.