Greetings, all — especially those of you who share a love of flying battleships.
Do you remember
Leviathans?
Leviathans was a big, boxed game released by Catalyst Game Studio back in 2012. Hex-based and utilising some unique dice mechanics,
Leviathans come complete with eight assembled and painted plastic models of gravity-defying warships (known in-universe as Leviathans), for the British and French fleets.
Unfortunately, problems with production allied with some ill-tested mechanics to strip
Leviathans of the exposure it otherwise deserved. For almost a decade, it has languished, the runt of the Catalyst litter.
That status might be about to change, however. Catalyst recently announced a new Kickstarter to enable the Germans to come out and play. A compilation of short stories set in the
Leviathans universe has just been published. Things are looking up... maybe!
In hopeful anticipation of soon seeing gaming tables festooned with fantastical flying fleets, I have acquired a few copies of
Leviathans, and have started tweaking, remodelling and repainting the models to my personal taste.
While I must admit that the Leviathans' rather — um —
curvaceous hulls are not to the tastes of all, I have come to love them, and their rather silly steampunk brass fittings. (No goggles, pith helmets or cogs, at least!)
What I
don't love are some of the very uninspiring fittings and weapons. The British ships, in particular, are ugly ducklings with apartment block superstructures and anaemic turrets that look like they were added as a mere afterthought. Also, none of the ships feature small boats (skyboats!) or other details which would do much to enhance the appeal of the models. Something must be done!
Fortunately, I recently did a deal with Elegoo to buy a pair of Mars 2 Pro 3D printers for my local Makerspace community centre to use. (These things are dangerous! I'm sure I had more free time before they came into my life!!) So, now I can produce all the fittings, masts, turrets and what-have-you that the ships need to complete their fitting out.
The first thing I sculpted was a bunch of new Turrets. Those of the French Leviathans are alright, but I thought the rounded rectangle (roundtangle?) of real French pre-dreadnoughts are more attractive. The British got Miyazaki-inspired half-dome designs to replace the hodgepodge of shapes that previously blighted their decks.
Also, I sculpted some replacements for the British cruisers' blocky bridges, plus some little skyboats for ferrying about Admirals, and their cousins and their aunts.
Here's
HML Behemoth, the first of the British battlewagons with new turrets and new masts, too. This is a work-in-progress, as you'll no doubt realise from the big hole on her after deck...
The colour scheme was inspired by postwar Fleet Air Arm aircraft colours.
Still have to print her skyboat contingent, and I'm debating if she should have a dorsal 'third bridge' a'la Space Battleship Yamato:
[img]https://www.collectiondx.com/gallery2/d/100166-5/P9110913.jpg?g2_GALLERYSID=83df62d7e540fe8c92f79d04186706e2
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Lastly, what's a game of pre-WW1 battleships — even flying ones — without their nemesis: Torpedo boats!
So, I sculpted one...
Looking forward to adding a squadron of this boat to my fleet. Although I'll need to design a ship card for this little thing before it takes to the skies.
That's all for this post, but I'll be back with more pretty soon. There's another seven Lev's in the dockyard right now, eager to get into action, so I'd better get cracking!
- Martin