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....

Santissima Trinidad

Described by some historians - wrongly - as the largest ship in the world at the time of Trafalgar, the Santissima Trinidad was still a bloody big ship. Four gun decks and 130 guns are not to be sniffed at; she was captured at Trafalgar but blew up the day after due to damage.

This is another of my junked fleet; new job sails made and new bowspit and spanker made from brass rod and styrene. The ratlines were again made from net curtain and thread. 

The rigging this time was a little more complex; quite a bit of it was done with a single thread. Because all rigging and ratlines were done after painting I was able to get more detail on the painting - including the cannon on the quarterdeck.

There will be a slight pause in the naval activities while I get a few bits for open evening done amongst the usual start of the new academic year stress. 

Master and Commander

It's post 200! Blimey, you do whack through them, don't you? And it's always nice to have a landmark post with some landmark content. So here is the first go at 1/1200 ships completed.

She's a 112 gun Ocean class French ship of the line, the Imperial - later named the Royal Louis - and painted in curiously british yellow and black. 

The painting was relatively simple but hampered by the fact that the sails were in place and also that I'd stuck the ratlines on. Next time they stay off until the rigging stage. 

A couple of shots before rigging. 

The rigging is based in the standing rigging and I only did the minimum to provide structural integrity to the masts. As we've discussed before I have an very unprofessional approach to historical accuracy when it comes to miniatures. 

Overall I'm very happy with this. For a first attempt it's pretty good.  I've learnt a lot which I can use on the next one. Which, history fans, looks like being the Santissima Trinidad.