Master and Commander Redux

“Jack and Stephen were neither of them human until the first pot of coffee was down, hot and strong.”

As long term readers of the blog will know, I have a deep and abiding love of the Aubrey Maturin novels and especially of the film version, Master and Commander. To the point where I made screen accurate versions of the Surprise and Acheron in 1/1200 alongside a number of other ships.

One issue has always been that there hasn't been a good 28mm version of either Lucky Jack or Stephen - until now. 

This is the Limited Edition miniature that Warlord Games shipped with their 2nd edition Black Powder rules. I have no need of the rules but wanted the miniature very badly indeed. Luckily, a scholar and gentleman of the Napoleonic Wargamer Facebook group was willing to part with his. 

It is a gorgeous sculpt and an incredibly crisp casting. 

A quick zenithal prime...

And then basecoating. 

Reference material:

I decided quite early on to go for a holystoned deck for the base as it would make the darkness of the coat stand out more. Incidentally, I have started using airbrush tinner instead of water to thin my paints, even when using a brush. It's genuinely revolutionised my painting - as you'll see with some of the detail work on Lucky Jack. 

Daylight test and I'm happy with the custom mixed Navy Blue. Time to do the gold trim.