And for todays update, more Steampunk, and in this case, the Iron Horse.
The Waffle:
"The Iron Horse (or ‘Copper Dragon’ as they were sometimes also referred to, due to the shape of their heads) was already old technology by the time of the Century Survey images being recorded in 1901. One of many devices built to harness steam technology, they were designed as essentially a road-going locomotive, with the power to haul much greater loads than horses. The various designs of Iron Horse became popular throughout the mid 1800’s, but as technology advanced the larger companies replaced them, meaning they were gradually passed to smaller companies and enterprises.
By the late 1930’s petrol and diesel powered vehicles had largely made the Iron Horse redundant, and many were scrapped, especially as part of the war effort when metal was required in large amounts. Saltaires two famous Iron Horses, Jemima and Matilda, originally belonged to the Mill and were later passed to the Leeds-Liverpool Navigation Company, based at the canal maintenance depot near the mill. When the horses were replaced in 1907, they passed back to the Mill, where they were preserved in working order and often used at local ceremonial functions. In the 1960’s they were moved to the new Industrial Museum in Bradford, becoming part of the Mechanical Horses Trust. Since restored to working order, they are regularly used for demonstration haulage events in the museum."
By the late 1930’s petrol and diesel powered vehicles had largely made the Iron Horse redundant, and many were scrapped, especially as part of the war effort when metal was required in large amounts. Saltaires two famous Iron Horses, Jemima and Matilda, originally belonged to the Mill and were later passed to the Leeds-Liverpool Navigation Company, based at the canal maintenance depot near the mill. When the horses were replaced in 1907, they passed back to the Mill, where they were preserved in working order and often used at local ceremonial functions. In the 1960’s they were moved to the new Industrial Museum in Bradford, becoming part of the Mechanical Horses Trust. Since restored to working order, they are regularly used for demonstration haulage events in the museum."
The Reality:
So this is another one of those ideas that kind of developed a momentum of its own, as the project went on... When I started doodling ideas for Steampunk themed vehicles, thinking along the classic steampunk-lines of ‘take an ordinary thing, overcomplicate it, make it out of metal and cover it in cogs whether or not it would make sense in the real world’, I wondered about a sort of cross between a tractor and a replacement for the horse.
It’s loosely inspired by early road-going steam locomotives, of the sort built by Trevithick, with hints of Stephenson’s Rocket in the layout of its component parts. It looked considerably more imposing with caterpillar tracks, even though it would make it hideously impractical and complicated to drive. And then I ended up going for the over-ornamentation approach of making it look a little bit like a horse, to give it a bit of character.
Some of the detail parts are designed to be interchangeable, such as the head, so the basic body can be modified easily to represent more than one vehicle. The main body itself comprises a foamboard chassis plate with a boiler/smokebox constructed from a Fairtrade Chocolate Sprinkles tub (the advantages of being the assistant manager of a café, plenty of access to things like this for Blue-Peter style builds). Detailing was the Ben-Standard combination of bits of felt pen, old toys, model kits, mountcard, and all the sorts of things you end up using when working on a budget of nowt. Oh to have access to bins full of thousands of bits of Airfix kits, like Gerry Andersons mob used to use. Heyho.
It’s loosely inspired by early road-going steam locomotives, of the sort built by Trevithick, with hints of Stephenson’s Rocket in the layout of its component parts. It looked considerably more imposing with caterpillar tracks, even though it would make it hideously impractical and complicated to drive. And then I ended up going for the over-ornamentation approach of making it look a little bit like a horse, to give it a bit of character.
Some of the detail parts are designed to be interchangeable, such as the head, so the basic body can be modified easily to represent more than one vehicle. The main body itself comprises a foamboard chassis plate with a boiler/smokebox constructed from a Fairtrade Chocolate Sprinkles tub (the advantages of being the assistant manager of a café, plenty of access to things like this for Blue-Peter style builds). Detailing was the Ben-Standard combination of bits of felt pen, old toys, model kits, mountcard, and all the sorts of things you end up using when working on a budget of nowt. Oh to have access to bins full of thousands of bits of Airfix kits, like Gerry Andersons mob used to use. Heyho.
As you can see from the guest appearance of Dr Who driving it, I wanted this to be quite a big model, so I could go a bit mad with the detailing. It was always intended to be a ‘Hero’ model in the photomanips, and feature very prominently, so whereas the Monorail is built to 1/72nd as a background piece, the mechanical horse needed to be much larger.
Painting was a spray in grey primer, followed by Citadel “Chaos Black” (I really would recommend Citadel acrylic paints, they’re pretty bloody fantastic for miniatures work, and their sprays are some of the best I’ve used in 10 years of doing this kind of work). Then everything was dry brushed with copper and bronze, with some light highlighting with white and yellow. The finished effect with the painting is exactly what I was aiming for- a grimy, well-used, and old looking piece of kit; well used but showing its age.
Currently under construction are a different set of tracks to represent a different horse, and also an armoured mechanical tractor, a “War Horse” if you will, for pulling artillery cannons.
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