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....

Billy Ruffian

HMS Bellerophon was an Arrogant class (and doesn't that just tell.you everything you need to know about the Royal Navy?) 74 gun ship of the line.

It was affectionately known as the 'Billy Ruffian' by the crew and was noted for being tough, fast and very maneuverable. The Bellerophon fought at all the major actions of the Napoleonic period, from the Glorious first to the Battle of the Nile to Trafalgar. In the last battle, the Billy Ruffian's captain was killed but the ship fought on, accounting for a number of French and Spanish opponents. After Waterloo, Napoleon intended to escape to America but found his way blocked by the Bellerophon. It was aboard the Billy Ruffian that the man who once bestrode Europe like a colossus was forced to surrender.

The Bellerophon may have been small, and the title may be technically correct, but you can't really call the Billy Ruffian a Third Rate Ship.

This was the last of the 1/1200 ships I bought and as soon as I realised it was a third rater there was no doubt how she would be painted; the only ship of the period I love more is the Surprise and that's not real.

This one suffered from a fairly serious miscast down one side; as you can see my painting wasn't quite enough to even up the gunports.

Rigging was done the same as the others except by now I've got it down to a single piece of thread.

So that marks the end of another project. I've completed the four ships I picked up and I have to say I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished. I've turned them from this:

Into this:

I've learnt a few new techniques into the bargain which came in useful in some other projects. Next up:

Think positive, baby.

HMS Caledonia

The third of my fleet is finally done. The Caledonia was laid down in 1805 and launched in 1808; she took part in a few major actions before being renamed HMS Dreadnought. She ended her days as a hospital ship, which is as good a way to go as any.

Pulling alongside the Santissima Trinidad for a devastating broadside.

The colour scheme is the classic Royal Navy yellow with black trim and red gunport covers. The Caledonia was painted in the scheme later in her life, I believe; I've not been able to confirm that she looked like this at the beginning of her career. 

The rigging was again relatively simple; I made a few mistakes with the ratlines but nothing I can't live with. 

One more to go before I decide whether to buy any more. I have to admit to really enjoying working on these. 

Trolls and ships and Model Ts... oh my

I've been a tad busy with a few bits and pieces - of which more at the end - but today I managed to pick up a brush and actually get some painting done.

First up is HMS Caledonian, a First Rate ship of the line. Another 1/1200 naval model from the second hand haul this one is now done apart from the rigging:

Secondly, we have the second troll for my Bloodbowl team The Green Machine. This one wasn't done at the same time as the rest of the team due to a broken drill bit. I'm particularly happy with the Goblin Long Bomb player.

Now I just need to come up with a name for him.

Lastly, something a bit different. We've reached the time of year when I tend to build a diorama to help pass the long winter months. What to build this year? My choice has been guided by another recent activity. For the first time in ages I'm going to be running a Cthulhu RPG  for Halloween, so I've been doing a lot of thinking around Lovecraft over the last couple of weeks. Hence this:

This is a Lledo die cast model t ford, the 1927 model. It's also - as you can see modeled by the glamorous Boromir - as near as dammit 25mm scale.

Here you can see the basic layout plan:

And here's the Model T repainted and weathered:

Came out rather well, I think.

Some more details on what eldritch and rugose horrors will be a part of this in another post. I'll also pop up some details about the Halloween game after Saturday as I don't want to give anything away to the players.

Avast! Splice the mainbrace and so forth

I ran into a slight problem with the naval games; I didn't have a suitable playing surface. I asked on the fighting sail Facebook group and they suggested a lot of excellent products but they were all a little expensive. Even the cheapest option - a Sails of Glory playing mat - was £35.

I was all for going to the local Boyes fabric department to buy some blue felt when a Google image search suggested something else.

Dreadfleet.

For those of you unfamiliar with this it was more or less the first of Games Workshops most recent attempts at standalone games. It was a limited release and had no expansions. Being a game of naval warfare in the Old World it came with the usual GW quality components - one of which was a mat. I could find someone selling these mats on eBay for about £30 so it was already cheaper than most other options.

More digging led to the discovery that although the going price for a Dreadfleet box is around £60-70 some could be snapped up for lower prices if you box clever. I found a likely looking couple of listings and started the process of haggling using the Best Offer mechanism. After back and forth that would have done the Souk proud, we settled on £35 and a few quid postage. So I more or less got the mat and the rest of the game for a fiver. At that price I don't care if the game or components are shoddy, frankly. It's second hand but all that's been done is a few of the bits have been stuck together and one ship has been under coated. 

Today, it arrived.

I opened it up and oh, my Lord, it's gorgeous. The rule book is a work of art:

I'm used to the quality of GW plastic engineering but this is fabulous. The playing pieces are fabulously designed and sculpted but u hadn't realised how much impact they have on the tabletop. Here's a few of the pieces so you can get a sense of the sheer amount of character some of the ships and scenery have:

Even the simple game components are beautifully designed:

What I hadn't quite got to grips with was how BIG they were. Talk about impact on the table. Here's a few shots with a Gandalf for scale:

So regardless of everything else, I'm going to have enormous fun painting these; this is going to be a lovely little project to do. 

But what about the mat, I hear you cry? After all, that's my I bought it. The mat was still in the original bag; it's thin material but oh so pretty:

And here it is with the ships I painted:

I think that will do very nicely indeed, don't you?

I have no idea about the game; but if you like the idea of painting some fantasy ships and you see a copy of this cheap, snap it up.