I'm reading this at the moment, having been inspired by Matt's Steamer Wars project on his excellent Shell Splash blog. This is my sideline project for the summer holidays, assuming my order from Tumbling Dice arrives before we leave for France. I already have a few of the 1/600 scale Tumbling Dice coastal warfare models, so have just topped up with the specific boats involved on Lake Tanganyika. I also have a cunning plan to convert some 1/600 WW1 aircraft into Short 827 seaplanes for the Belgians, if I can pull that off? The rules will be Steamer Wars, which I also already have, so this is a very low cost, low maintenance holiday project. Perfect!
Funnily enough I was just about to reply to your post on TWW recommending this book! It's a cracking read and an amazing story. If they made a film about it and told the story with no embellishments you'd think it was too far fetched. Very interested to see how your Short 827 conversions work out, as I've been thinking of attempting the same thing myself. BTW, Peter Shankland's 'The Phantom Flotilla' is good too and has a bit more detail on the naval actions.
ReplyDeleteI've had both books on the reading list for ages. Don't know why I haven't got round to reading them before but I have a long ferry journey to fill, so now seems like a good opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI had a look at some Tumbling Dice WW1 aircraft and reckon I can convert a Brisfit into a Short 827 by lengthening the fuselage, adding a new upper wing and twin floats instead of wheeled undercarriage. It's a lot of cutting and gluing hut it's worth a try!
Good idea. I was thinking of doing something with the Breguet, but it would be too small. The other possibility is Heroics and Ross - they do a 1/300 Short 184. It's currently out of stock, but it looks like H&R are slowly ramping up production again. Wrong scale, but no conversion necessary, and I don't mind having aircraft in a larger scale than ships.
DeleteYes I looked for 1/300th scale models and found the H+R one but, as you say, it's OOP. I am going to try a mash up using the TD Brisfit with a lengthened fuselage and the wings from the TD Friedrichshafen G III. Sounds nuts but I think it might work?
DeleteThe G III has a much larger wingspan, but I guess with enough hacking you might get away with it! The good news is you only need 2 of them - the Belgians only had 2 pilots.
DeleteIt's an excellent read, well worth it.
ReplyDeleteIt is so far...very engaging!
DeleteTotally agree with AJ. Great book about an utterly mad expedition.
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