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.

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...

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...

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!

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...

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...