Wind Cannon

I was surfing the Internet again yesterday, looking at random stuff and generally relaxing, when I came across this bizarre contraption. It purports to be a German Wind Cannon, designed to knock allied aircraft out of the sky with a directed vortex of air.

(Source: http://www.strange-mecha.com/cannone/wc.htm)

This devise was allegedly built in Stuttgart and was designed to fire a blast of highly pressured air and water vapour. Early experiments showed some promise with its effective range being about 200m.

"Experimental trials of the cannon at Hillersleben demonstrated that a 25mm-thick wooden board could be broken at a distance of 200m. Nitrogen peroxide was deployed in some of the experiments so that the brown color would allow the path and destination of the otherwise transparent projectile to be observed and photographed. The tests proved that a powerful region of compressed and high-velocity air could be deployed with sufficient force to inflict some damage.

However, the aerodynamics of a flying aircraft would almost surely neutralized the effectiveness of this cannon. In addition the effects of the cannon on a fast-flying aircraft was quite different from that on a fixed ground target. Still, the cannon was installed on a bridge over the Elbe, but with no significant results -- either because there were no aircraft or simply no successes (as one might suspect). The wind cannon was an interesting experiment but a practical failure."

(MilitaryImages.net)

I've since seen this picture on several other sites but they all repeat the same text (copied word for word but not credited to a source I might add) so its hard to tell if this is a genuine weapon or an Internet myth that has been copied and propagated (which of course is exactly what I'm doing!). The Nazis seemed to waste a lot of time and resources on their wonder weapons, many of which never came to fruition, so a wind cannon might not be all that improbable after all. Myth or not its intriguing.

Painting White

I recently had a couple of questions about how to paint white clothing. I've painted several figures over the last year or so that feature a significant element of white clothing or snow covered bases and I'm generally happy with the results I have achieved. Having written an explanation of my method I decided it would make a good mini-tutorial... so here it is.

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Painting White

White is a tricky colour to get right. My first attempts just looked like I'd forgotten to paint over a section of white base coat. The problem is that painting white is not as simple as it first seems and requires the same techniques as painting any other colour - laying down a base colour, emphasising shading and building up highlights - but with more emphasis on the shadows than the highlights. Its the shadows that define the finished effect because they 'frame' the white highlights.

First you need to decide what colour of white you want to finish with. This may sound a little strange but by this I mean do you want a Cold or Warm finish. For a cold white you want a hint of grey in the shadows. There are lost of greys to choose from but I like the Vallejo Wolf Grey (Game Colour Range, # 47) because it has a hint of blue in it. Another good alternative is Stonewall Grey (#49) which is a neutral colour. For a warm white use a yellowish brown colour (not red!) such as Leather Brown (#40).

Some painters I have spoken with suggest painting the whole area in the darker shade colour as the base and then building up the layers of white towards the highlights. In my experience this just tones down the final effect. To get white highlights that really shine you need to start with a white undercoat and work from that. I use Vallejo White primer for this as it gives a good solid base colour that will even cover a black undercoat without obscuring details.

Once I have the base coat in place I work my way out from the shadows to the highlights concentrating on the harder to reach areas first. The beauty of working with white is that it covers sloppy work in the early stages, so if you don't get your shading quite neat enough don't panic.

To apply the shadows I mix up a strong Wash of the Shade colour with one part paint to 4 parts Water (my mixing water is actually 20% Flow improver and 80% Water which stops the wash from pooling or forming beads of liquid). In then apply the wash sparingly to the recesses in several coats until I'm happy they are dark enough (I use the Wash more like a Glaze at this stage). Bare in mind that some shadows will be darker than others - under arms or in deep folds for instance. The beauty of using a wash in this way is that you can feather the colour up towards the highlights relatively easily.

The Highlights are for me more difficult as it is here that the final effect will be achieved. If you want a dirty white you need to keep the colour just a shade off of pure colour except for the extreme highlights. If you want crisp clean white you need to make the topmost highlights solid white. I use a mixture of dry brushing and paint applied directly with a fine brush to apply the highlights. I usually start by diluting the white with my special water mix but only to a 1:1 consistency. Application at this stage is critical, too much liquid on the brush and the paint will run into the shadows and ruin your earlier work. If you lay down several thin coats like this you can build up the highlights to a pure white.

White if often considered very hard for beginners to master. However in my experience its just a matter of taking the techniques you already know and being bold in your use of them. The contrast between shade and highlight is much greater with white and the greater the contrast the more striking the finished effect.

Payback

Our gaming group, the Dagenham Dungeon Delvers, got together last week for our first game of the year. Other responsibilities (Jobs, Kids, Partners etc) stopped us meeting earlier but on the plus side most of the gang was able to attend for a change. Despite a late start we got a lot done and this was one of the best games we've had in a long time.
One of the factors in our favour was the fact that we only had our own characters to run instead of two each. Each player was able to focus on his PC's strengths and we worked well as a team. The Evil GM tried his best to ruin our fun but with our PC's working in unison we overcame each of the three combats thrown at us easily.

Possibly the best encounter of the evening occurred when our PC's burst into a room where a Dark Elf Wizard stood chanting a spell outside a chalk circle. Inside the circle were two swarms of vicious looking red spiders. The Mage was able to break the chalk line with his foot, releasing the swarms at us, before combat started. Events unfolded fast with our own Wizard, Mindaris, casting Incendiary Detonation on the Mage, knocking him prone. There then followed a torrent of ranged attacked from our Eladrin Swordmage and the groups Halfling Brothers Janek & Jarped.

By now the Dark Elf was bloodied and in trouble... so my Dragonborn Warlord, Uthek, rushed into the room - ignoring opportunity attacks from the released spider swarms - to attack the still prone Wizard. Then Uthek used his action point to make another attack which dealt an improbably 32points of damage, killing the Dark Elf Mage stone dead. The look on the GM's face was worth every hard fought level up to this moment. His lip quivered and he whined "But my Mage didn't get to do anything"... "That's wrong...[said I]...he smudged a chalk line on the floor".

Thankfully the GM has a sense of humour.

I have to add that while my PC dealt the killing blow it was very much a team effort and proved what we could achieve when we employed our resources in a combined strategy. In that one moment of guts and glory we had shown what D&D is all about; co-operation, teamwork and good clean fun.

Panzerfaust vs T34

I recently came across this YouTube video by a Polish reenactment group, SRH Pomerania. This particular recreation is of the Battle of Kosakowo (?) and features a particularly spectacular Panzerfaust attack on a Russian T34. This short film is excellently done and all I can say is these guys really know how to put on a show!