HMS Surprise

"The Surprise is not old; no one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She's a fine seabird: weatherly, stiff and fast... very fast, if she's well handled. No, she's not old; she's in her prime."

Like a lot of people, I am a Patrick O'Brien addict. So when I got a little bit of good news at work last month, I decided to treat myself to something I had been planning for a while.

You may recall this is not my first foray into Napoleonic naval modelling; but those ships were a cheap joblot off ebay and a rescue attempt. How would I manage with a brand new kit? This was ordered from Langton miniatures and the difference between these and the GHQ ones I had worked on before was immediately apparent. The kits were clean and incredibly detailed.

One thing I had done was order brass etch sails. I've never worked with PE before because I'd seen the odd Cronenberg-esque tools people were using, but I figured this was as good a time as any.

The base was made as before, with plasticard and plastic putty for the waves:

I decided early on that I wanted to go for a screen-accurate version of Lucky Jack's ship, so I used the film and actual replica used for filming as a reference:

And then once she was painting, I applied the rigging and the photoetch ratlines for the final touch.

Here's a penny for scale :) 

Very happy with how she turned out. The brass sails are lovely and really enhance the look of the vessel.

The more eagle eyes among you may have noticed that there were two kits from Langton in the delivery picture. More on this soon....