Constructing the Cressida Rose Part 1

Andy and James were kind enough to get me the awesome Nile paddle steamer set from Redoubt Enterprises by way of a combined birthday and Xmas present this year.  The kits is fantastic, a rear-wheel paddle steamer with two decks, complete with crew, naval brigade, infantry and heavy weapons.  It's around 18" long and 4" wide, the boat itself usable for games set in the Sudan and also with some poetic license in Darkest Africa (up the Congo), and the figures at home facing Fuzzy Wuzzies or Zulus.  Today saw the first stages of construction of what will become the steamer Cressida Rose.

The Redoubt illustration of the product looks like this:

Redoubt's catalogue illustration of the completed steamer

The parts came well packed but with the larger, flatter resin pieces cracked into a couple of extra pieces.

The other parts of the steamer were cast in a heavier resin and required very little cleaning up.

Deck buildings at the top, paddle wheel minus blades to the left, and barricades at bottom

The first job was thus to glue the flat resin base pieces back together with epoxy.  Having done this, putting the pieces together showed the overall look of the model:

The component parts fit very well so I've decided not to glue the complete model together but instead keep it separate - which should be easier to store and which will allow the use of the barricades etc for other games (eg a Rorkes Drift type scenario).  It's heavy enough that, with a couple of bits of blu-tack, it should be robust enough to survive on the wargames table.

Last job today was putting the paddle wheel and shafts together, which required some filing and more epoxy. I plan to base this on some plasticard and model the churned up river waters with ready-mixed filler.

Tomorrow I'll do the spray undercoat for all the pieces if the weather is dry enough.