Friday 31 July 2015

1/1200 scale Napoleonic Ships - 74 Gun Complete

So after a fairly epic rigging session last night the 74 gun French ship is complete.


And then this afternoon I started rigging the somewhat smaller Brig. It's a good job the kids were out as there were some rude words when I accidentally cut one of the main stays in half.



Tuesday 28 July 2015

1/1200 scale Napoleonic Ships - Rigging Started


Having now built up the Langton's 1/1200 scale Napoleonic 74 gun ship I've started with the rigging.

When I did the first ones of these 20 years ago I used superglue to secure the rigging. Since I now have a superglue allergy this was not an option any more. Instead I've been using small blobs of PVA and this has been far superior to the superglue I used before.

In the photo below you can see I've completed the main stays and most of the rigging on the foremast. In the background you can see one of the ships I did 20 years ago.


Anyway, that'll have to be enough for one night! Off to bed...

Sunday 26 July 2015

Wars of the Roses progress and other projects

So I just completed Edward IV and a unit of Billmen taking me to this:



I'm not sure whether to paint the next Bows, Bills and Men at Arms also in the royal livery or whether to move over to one of the other lords I have Hastings or Fauconberg.

Anyway, before I get on with that the Coastal Castle project has had me looking at Langton's Napoleonic Naval again. I found some I have had in their packets for 20 years and started them off.


The ship in the back is one I completed 20 years ago.

But then to top things off we have a Necromunda campaign planned at COGS and being a newb to the game I have needed to get myself a gang. Rather than the old GW models I was drawn to Heresy Miniatures' Sci-Fi Gangers, which are perfect to be used as Delaque. So far all I've got done is build them up...








Tuesday 21 July 2015

Man O'War

Tonight saw the first Man O'War game at COGS for a very long time. My Dwarf fleet versus Steve's Elves on the new sea boards with the coastal castle I've been building recently.

I was unfortunately soundly beaten by Steve's Elves, wasting my Man O'War cards far too early and foolishly deploying my force split up.

It wasn't all plain sailing for Steve though, with the wind turning directly at him in a couple of turns. Though the fantastic save rolling of his Dragon ship and the terrible save rolling of my Dreadnaught did rather help him!





Saturday 18 July 2015

Coastal Castle Finished!

It's done, It's ready in time for the game on Monday and I'm very pleased with it!

After a suggestion from Marell on the Sea of Claws Man O'War group I've added a lot more white foam to the waves where they hit the rocks. I've also added some clump foliage as bushes to the land, leaving the area around the castle mostly clear.

Here are a few photos. First off the castle and beach...




Thursday 16 July 2015

Coastal Castle Part 7

24 hours later and the sealant is almost all translucent. Just some of the bigger "waves" are a bit milky. These may lose their milkiness in the next 24 hours or they may not.

So, I got on with the last stage of painting. I drybrushed white onto the tops of the waves for foam, did some tidying on the beach and repainted a few of the roofs as I wasn't entirely happy with them.

With that done the next and hopefully last step is to put some clump foliage on for trees and bushes.






Coastal Castle Part 6

Tonight's work on the castle has me the most worried so far.

With inspiration from a superb board I've seen made by my friend Richard Watts I've had a go at making some waves crashing into the rocks and beach.

To do this, I've done the same as Richard did with his boards and used translucent bathroom sealant. This has appears to be very suitable to make the choppy water that I want to achieve but goes on WHITE.

I really do hope it dries translucent as it should! To give a little confidence the small amount I got on my fingers did indeed dry translucent.

Drying time is 24-48 hours...





Wednesday 15 July 2015

Coastal Castle Part 5

Tonight was the first proper stage of painting and I got a lot more done than I expected!

Lots of dry-brushing... a small amount of detailing and even a bit of a wash at the end.

It's starting to really come together now.








Monday 13 July 2015

Coastal Castle Part 4

So tonight I painted a base coat. Dark grey over the rocky bits and dark green over the grassy bits...

Painting proper starts tomorrow night when it's dried.



Sunday 12 July 2015

Coastal Castle Part 3

It's been a couple of days since the last step, but that's because even in hot weather the all-purpose putty takes a while to dry. Anyway with that dry I've got on with the next step.

First of all the castle keep was glued on with 2-part epoxy and then I've glued fine sand on with PVA glue which will be painted green to represent grass.



The next step is to start the painting... hopefully I'll begin that tomorrow night.

Friday 10 July 2015

Sea Boards

So, again with the Man O'War game looming and the putty on the castle drying (it takes at least 48 hours) I decided it was time to make some boards for the game.

I've found from  various other projects that Wickes do some decent 2ft x 4ft 6mm thick MDF boards for not too much. Two of these makes a perfect 4ft x 4ft play area. A couple of months ago I made a set of these for my X-Wing games. They store nicely in the garage, are easy to transport and extend the size of our dining table at home nicely.

They also solve a problem at COGS. We have tables like the ones below. Although a good size they have an annoying rim around them which when a cloth is placed on top produces a ridge right through the middle of the table.



Anyway a quick search and I found this video in which a technique for making sea tables is presented. So I thought I'd give it a try. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVrKhu9_Wxo

I had a sampler tin of dark blue paint left over from another project and that was used as the base coat. This dried very fast indeed and I've been able to also apply the other coats of paint. I just used some from my Vallejo collection.

I'm pleased with the way they've come out. I'll leave them overnight to dry and apply some gloss varnish as I have no idea where to get the "Glass Coat" stuff the guy in the video mentions in the UK.





Coastal Castle Part 2

So some progress tonight.

First I finished shaping the cliff faces and then cut the hardboard. I glued the coastline onto the hardboard and the castle onto the hill. The added in some rocks at the base of the cliffs and around the beach.



Then once this had dried a bit I plastered it where needed...




 With a small brush I textured where the paths would go.


Wednesday 8 July 2015

Coastal Castle for Man O'War (or other naval game) Part 1

With the chance of a Man O'War game coming up in less than a fortnight I decided it's time to finally get the Langton 1/1200 castle built up for the game.

The castle will be sat on a promontory on the edge of the board with a beach inlet alongside it. I've just finished marking out the hardboard base and doing the basic shaping of the polystyrene sheeting I'm using to make the landscape. Unfortunately I can't cut the hardboard right now as that will make too much noise and wake my family up!

Castle can be bought from here.