Pirate Brig takes shape

I managed to get more work done on my Gary Chalk Pirate Brig over the weekend.

As you can see from last time I have added the Main and Foremasts, the fighting tops or 'crows nests', and also the cross spars for the main square sails, but an addition to the plan is the gaff-rigged rear booms towards the stern, which would signify the ship as a 'Brig'. And of course the bowsprit.

I must admit, the more I have got into making this ship, the more I have researched and looked at what type of ship a Brig is, but that has led me to look at what the 'other' named types of ship there were out there and what they looked like.

Being a self professed land-lumber this has all been quite fascinating. I recommend the Pirates Cove link in my links sidebar. This site was a wonderful source of info on ships and types.

I also found wikipedia very useful for its simple diagrammatic representations of these ships - in particular how the sails are supposed to go. However, this ship is to be a playable gaming model, not an accurate scale model, so there has to be some sense kept in all this. I will not be adding ALL the sails as show in the various pictures and diagrams, just enough to give it that 'Brig theme'.

I have placed an order with Laurie at Kapiti models (see link in link sidebar) for another ships Wheel, as per the smaller sloop previously seen in another blog post.

The only thing I am a little stuck for is a suitable looking anchor.

That, and I am awaiting an order for some hobby dark brown 'burnt umber' paint, so I can make a start on painting up my growing 'fleet' ;-)

Arr Arr, keep a weather-eye open , ship mates!

New buildings finished for the growing Port

I finished painting my latest two buildings for my growing Port.

I played about with Photoshop to create a simple sign for my "Shoppe" deciding instead to turn it into a Chandler, named for my son.

And along side it the double door-ed dockside ware/store house.

The Quartermaster finds where he can find supplies.

And a few shots of my growing port town. Some of the buildings at the back are my earlier attempts at medieval buildings, so some have thatched roofs. They may be a bit out of place for the Caribbean, but I imagine might suit an English port of the period?

More to come...

The Pyrates

The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser.

For those who love things of a pirate nature, this is a cracking read, and will have you in the mood for getting out those pirate models and rolling some dice. Well worth a look.

From the back of the book cover:-

"The Pyrates is all the swashbucklers that ever were, rolled onto one great Technicoloured pantomime - tall ships and desert islands, impossibly gallant adventurers and glamorous heroines, buried treasure and Black Spots, devilish Dons and ghastly dungeons, plots, duels, escapes, savage rituals, tender romance and steaming passion, all to the accompaniment of ringing steel, thunderous broadsides, sweeping film music, and the sound of cursing extras falling in the water and exchanging period dialogue. Even Hollywood buccaneers were never like this."

Firmly tongue in cheek stuff. Grab a copy if you can, you won't regret it.

Pirate progress pictures

Some more pictures of progress as promised after tonight's work:

The second small sloop, just showing the card sides being added, and then the balsa being added, strip by strip. Its actually thinner than I originally thought, it's 0.8mm thick, cut into roughly 5mm wide strips.

The Metal figure is just for scale - it is a LOTR dunlending 28mm. Still he looks wildly pirate like in his own way perhaps?

Here's the first small sloop, now pretty much finished, just awaiting painting. I cut the holes for the cannons, added the deck grate and pinned into position the wheel. I am probably going to leave the wheel removable to allow movement of figures on deck as it's quite a cramped little sloop. With the two cannon present I may struggle to stand 8 Pirate crew on deck.

Here's the Brig, starting to get decked out as it were. All interior planking done, ladders added, windows added, cannon holes cut, doors added, deck grate added. Just now awaiting the masts to be added.

I am sorry this shot is sideways on, I think blogger has had one of its 'moments' or perhaps my gimp software is playing up? Anyway you can see how the stern windows look for the captains quarters.

I'll try and continue work this week and get some more colourful shots up this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Piracy continues!

I must first apologise for the lack of pictures in todays post.

This week has seen some rather unexpected developments on the home front, impinging on my hobby time, so I haven't got as much done as I would like, but work still continues gradually.

My Brig is now fully timber clad, and windows have been added to the stern. Just as I thought all was looking good, I took delivery of my first pack of ships cannons (3-6 lbers from Crusader Miniatures via Old Glory in US) - thanks to Brian Smaller for ordering, and dropping these off for me on Sunday. Now I have the cannons, I realise I will have to make some alterations to the positions of the portholes (is that what you call where the cannon sticks out?), to accommodate the cannons. Not a big job but a little more work.

I also want to elaborate on the ship with addition of railings, and add cargo deck grate covers now, again that I now have the guns for an idea of size.

I can also do the same to my original small sloop, not the railings, but deck grate certainly and cut holes for cannon. So my ships will be approaching completion soon I hope. I also managed to get some 10mm dowel to make masts for Brig.

The Shoppe and Warehouse have had their first coats of paint so they are about half finished now.

Also managed a second game with Brett Mudgeway on Saturday night. He had found his box of pirate goodies from 10 plus years ago... and came with a bunch of Foundry figures, a 12'long slim sloop, complete with huge cannons! Also a whale! Sperm Whale a la Moby Dick, but blue/grey not white. We'll have to come up with some rules for that. Anyone got any ideas, please shout up.

We played a game; Kidnap the Governors daughter. I was the defender with my Pirate Crew. I suppose in that circumstance, his Pirate crew were probably trying to steal her for themselves to get the ransom!
My Captain and three cuttroats with muskets held up in the 'Governors' residence, with the daughter, while my Quartermaster, 2 Mates and a rogue came in from the side. Cunning use of townsfolk as speed bumps and generally getting in the way, slowed up Bretts pirates and gave my crew some cover to get into position. I was going to run them to the residence, but ended up turning and intercepting half of Bretts Pirate crew. A couple of 2 onto 1's and some unlucky dice from Brett, and some decent rolls to kill from me saw several of his crew go down in a couple of turns, and with half his crew down he voluntarily routed. My Captain had a lucky break when Bretts Captain stuck his pistol through groundfloor window and would have had my captains head off - a Fate point turned this into a stung ear instead! ;-)

It's definitely a tricky one this scenario, for the attacker, having played it a couple of times.

Still, a good game we both enjoyed. It's quite simply wonderfully characterful...

We did go through the post game sequence just to see what sort of things can happen: Bretts mate went 'crazy' as a result of his in-game 'death', he also lost a couple of henchmen to 'He's dead Jim! ;-) '. My only casualty; my mate, was captured! Dastardly Brett chose to sell him to the authorities for bounty, although how exactly a pirate crew would managed to contact the authorities, to claim the bounty on another pirate, without getting caught themselves continues to mystify me!

We were hoping to use it as a first game for our campaign but I think with Brett still not being 100% with the rules (his rulebook has not arrived yet) for things like Heroic actions, and us fogetting to record exactly who killed who, we may just put this one down to practice.

Plus we are still trying to fully fathom the Henchman group rules, in terms of group experience etc. This is the only bit of the rules I found a little confusing. I have heard they are derived from the Mordhiem rules, but I have not played that so I am a little in the dark in that respect. A few questions to the LotHS yahoo group will hopefully clear this up.

Well that just about wraps up this post. I hope to press on with more work tonight when I get in from work and get some more pictures of progress up soon.

More Pirate Progress

More work during the week and a wet sunday, allowed more time for some more construction.

I managed to get more work done on my Brig and after the trials and tribulations with the size of the hull sides, I got them clad with 1mm balsa, cut into 5mm thick strips, and again bent with steam, for the bow of the ship. It's coming on nicely I think.

A dock is not complete without some port facilities and heres a start on a dock warehouse building, with double doors for moving cargo in and out.

A port will need stores selling goods to all and sundry, so heres is my first "shoppe" - it may be a general dealer, chandler, or apothecary, I haven't decided yet...

Finally realizing I may be hosting visiting pirate crews in need of a ship, I started another small sloop as per the first one I posted pics about. Heres a shot of how the decks line up before sides are added and cladding done. Besides a port needs several ships about to look right I think.

Work continues apace!

Pirates Progress

I managed to finish off the paint job on my first three pirate themed buildings I've been making recently. I am quite pleased with how they have turned out.

I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures, with some characterful figures alongside.

I dare say they may well be useful for other periods too, Renaissance period in general and probably Lord of the Rings for areas like Bree and other areas of human dwellings in Eriador.

I have a couple more buildings half assembled now, to continue with.

At the weekend I may hunt through the local $2 stores for plastic plants after a tip off from the Colonel O'Truth. These will help 'vegetate' my Caribbean world.

I've also been continue work on my Gary Chalk Brig. I ran into problems aligning the card hull sides. I am not sure what was intended but I found the template produced a hull side that was too low, not properly reaching the top level of the quarter deck and foredeck. So I used the template to make a larger template that I preferred the look of, and attached those instead. This gives me a barrier at the edge of the quarter deck and a small lip round side of foredeck. I intend to build both up with a wooden railing.

I also wasn't too pleased with the rounded decorative style of the stern from the template, and fashioned a simpler structure. I'll still add window effects using the same green mesh I made the windows with on the above buildings.

I must admit I'm thoroughly enjoying this project, and with PotC Stranger Tides released today, number one son & I are booked to see the movie at the cinema on Saturday :-)