Black Seas

My Lords

I beg leave to report to you our engagements with the Enemy over the last period. Alas, I cannot report all is well. 

The first engagement happened off Flamborough Head when Captain Pellew of the Stallion - a nimble and fleet 32 gun  - came across a fifth rate Frenchman. We believe it to be L'Etoile out of Brest. The wind gauge was 'gainst Pellew but he tacked to bring himself about and launched a broadside against the Frenchman, damaging her rudder. Alas recovering from this brought him into the wind and his crew were unable to tack before L'Etoile came about and launched a broadside into the Stallion's stern causing a fire to break out. although the Jack Tars of Stallion fought the blaze valiantly, the flames reached the powder magazine and that gallant vessel exploded with the loss of almost all hands. 

The second engagement was Captain Aubrey of the Surprise, ordered to escort Hercules, an Indiaman, bringing much needed supplies. He was set upon by privateers in three brigs. The Surprise drove forward and presented herself between the buccaneers and their prize, delivering broadside after broadside. They swarmed her and she took heavy damage but purchased enough time for the Hercules to escape their clutches. 

I commend Captain Aubrey to you, my Lords, and warrant that our command shall do better in future. 

I remain your humble and faithful servant, 

Commodore Alfred Pennyworth. 

**************

Finally got Black Seas to the table and it is enormously good fun. Rum was drunk and stories were created. Highly recommended if you're after a fun game rather than a simulation. 

England Expects

I have more or less finished the Frigates for Black Seas and I thought it would be handy to put another guide to how I do the sea bases here.

They still need the pennants and ratlines for everything but the Surprise but they're certainly ready for the first game. I'll rig and add the sails to the brigs later.

The bases are a refinement of the ones I did for Cruel Seas which are basically a scaled down version of the ones I did for the U-Boat diorama.

The structure is a bit of sheet styrene - 2mm thick to provide a strong base. These are then covered in polyfilla and painted with dark sea green. It's important to make sure the ships fit but you can use this stage to model them listing or cresting waves.

Then add some offwhite/dark sea green highlights to the crests but also in random places. Then coat the whole thing in still water (or gloss varnish; still water is better because it levels out any little holes you have in the polyfilla)

Then slather Vallejo Water Effect Atlantic all over. It looks very bright but don't worry....

...it dries translucent blue. Leave it for 24 hours to make sure it's cured properly.

Now mix off-white, atlantic blue and still water and sponge it all over the higher points on your wave structures and wakes.

Then slather another, slightly thinner coat of the atlantic blue  and leave for another 24 hours. 

Now do your final wave crests and waves with a sponge, making sure to leave the stuff from the layer below visible. 

Glue the ships down

And finally, dip some cotton wool in the still water and place it around the bows and stern; brush it into place with the still water and you have sea foam. 

Hope this helps! Next up, an actual game. 

The Far Side of the World

"The Acheron is a tough nut to crack... more than twice our guns, more than twice our numbers, and they will sell their lives dearly. [...] Much will depend on your accuracy... however... even crippled, she will still be dangerous, like a wounded beast."

The second part of my little treat to myself. The difficulty with building the Acheron is that she never existed as a ship; in the book version of Fat Side of the World, the enemy is an American Privateer, more or less the Constitution. For the film, they replaced it with a french Frigate.

I bought a Langton French frigate and brass sails and set to work creating as close as I could version of the ship from the film:

I think, overall I got there. I haven't normally put flags and signals on these models, but for this one I decided to try and match the screen version.

So another two ships to add to my growing fleet.