cast

Boats -
Riverine and Coastal Vessels

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.

deck
Engine house
Upper deck
Bridge house
Roof
Upper deck stairways (2)
Gun shied

In addition to the resin parts, there is a small bag of white metal parts comprising a

Smoke stack
Anchor
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.

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

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.

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

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.

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