Edward Kenway - Pirate Assassin

A brief return to the Seven Seas... and a certain video game inspired character; Edward Kenway, of Assassins creed 4 fame...

As mentioned earlier, this figure came to me as a fine gift from a fine fellow :)

I have painted him up in a colour scheme, matching as well as I could, the box cover art of the video game.

Armed to the teeth, as any good pirate or assassin worth his salt should be, with a brace of pistols and a pair of cutlasses... Arrrrrr shiver me timbers mate, they don't like it up 'em! ;-)

Here 'Eddie' leads his band of merry nair-do-wells, against a Royal Navy detachment at port...

... I'll admit I don't fully understand the plot of the video game... seems to be some odd mix of Avatar and Pirates of the Caribbean... some chap goes back in time from present day to the period era occupying an Avatar-like being and runs about killing people in his quest to find some required item...

No doubt my son will fill me in with the details if they are going to be relevant in our miniatures gaming!

Thanks again to the Legatus for the figure, much appreciated :)

The Temptress

Its been a long, on and off slog, as different games and genres have distracted me from getting this finished but I've got there in the end, I have finally finished my Brig and present to you; The Temptress.

She's been in a partially completed state for a couple of years now, so its been good to get motivated and finish her off... I checked back through my blog post history to try and see when I actually started her and found her origins here:
http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/pirate-port-takes-shape.html
Approx 15th May 2011... OK, so its taken me a little over three years to complete! At least I got there in the end!

She was built from the downloaded and printed out plans by Gary Chalk, using primarily foamcard, card and balsa. These plans have come into criticism for making a somewhat 'slab-sided' ship. But I think they work fine and produce what is after all, a gaming piece, and not a true scale model...

I have also gone back through subsequent posts and labelled them all 'sloop', 'ship and 'brig' accordingly so if you wish you can check back through the various posts and see them developed over time... Go to Labels at bottom of Blog page... not now, not now... you might as well read the rest of this first! ;-)

The Temptress

Recent detailing work was to add the Catheads and Anchors to either side of the bow. I used some of the new GW rust effect technical paint for these... and must thank mate Roly Hermans also, for his help with info on details, from his fine collection of pirate books, that helped me figure out just how to rig up the anchors, in at least a roughly historic manner...

Mermaid figurehead, Cathead and Anchor

Also swivel guns to the rear deck sides...

Rear Deck Swivel Guns

And of course a final paint job...

I wanted to keep the Brig dark and menacing, as befits a pirate ship, didn't want a lot of coloured effects. So main dark brown base paint job, drybrushed with a dark brown/grey mix, and then a final very light drybrush with a cream colour...

The sails I washed with a cream colour wash of thinned paint... White sails just look to clean to me, especially for a pirate ship, so I like the 'worn weathered' look the cream wash gives... My son wanted me to paint the sails black as per a certain notorious pirate ship, but I thought that would be a little too copy-cat-ish!

I considered adding rear lanterns, and briefly pondered using mini LED's to light them... but the amount of work she has been so far, I decided enough is enough! I might come back to it later and see if they can be retro-fitted, but its not a high priority task, I've got heaps of other stuff I am busy with, as if you hadn't guessed! ;-)

The rear name plate was done use Woodland Scenics rub on dry decals. My free hand is not that good! ;-)

In the Legends of the High Seas game, she would be classed as a medium ship and is equipped with 10 small cannons, 5 to each side.

She makes a fine vessel for my Foundry Pirates to crew. I have also got a handful of Old Glory sailors in a climbing-the-rigging pose, (thanks to mate Brian Smaller), which I may get round to painting, now that they have some rigging to climb!

I am pleased I got my Liquitex sea surface done recently, it certainly sets her off nicely for her maiden appearance...

Just need to see if we can arrange some games to try her out in now!

The Crows nest, a perfect musket firing platform.

Crows nest

And the Fighting tops too...

Fighting top

And here she is alongside my first pirate ship I completed, a sloop named the Becky Boo, after my daughter. As ships are always referred to a 'She or Her', I guess that means the Brig must be named after my wife!? ;-) She certainly tempted me, all those years ago now!

So I have the makings of a fleet and may have to promote myself from Captain to Commodore, and get a suitably ostentatious and flamboyant hat! ;-)

Looking forward to trying out her sea legs....

Sailing the Seven Seas...

Lots of work over the weekend - first job was to Liquitex the sea surface, that I had painted up last weekend...

I wasn't sure how much Liquitex (Gloss Gel Medium) I would need to cover the board (120cm x 180cm) so ordered up a couple of medium sized pots. Turns out I only needed half one medium pot (about 250mls all up). I painted it on and spread it out into a thin layer with a medium sized household paintbrush, then used a large make-up blusher brush to stipple a pattern into it .... working my way across across the board as I did so. It was touch dry by end of the day but I left it overnight to fully dry before putting anything on it...

Its certainly better than the Mod Podge I mentioned earlier in another post... I used that on my river sections, but I think I may go over that with the Liquitex...

Once dry, I let my Pirate crew take their sloop, the 'Becky Boo' for a sail...

And then I can put the port board back down on top, and the Becky Boo can moor up against the jetty...

I am rather pleased with the effect... and I have plenty Liquitex left to to do my other board that the Jungle/Desert Isle sits on... plus other water effects that may come up...

On related 'pirate matters' I also finished my Brig over the weekend, at least in terms of building it; adding the anchors to the catheads and swivel guns to rear deck sides. Theres endless little extra details I could add, but I feel it is done sufficiently now - it is after all a gaming piece, not a scale model and the more stuff you put into it, the less space you have for model placement... I was going to add a Capstan, but I'd lose a chunk of deck space... so decided to leave it out. Just got to finish painting it up now... oh and add the name plate at the back, that's the final bit of making to do...

I also got a bunch of other terrain making and painting work done over the weekend, more work on Khazad Dum Bridge board, the Causeway and finished the Dwarrowdelf Towers, and almost finished painting the Uruk Scouts - should get those done over the course of this week... and finally got round to playing out the Watcher scenario too, but I'll blog these extra activities through the week... stay tuned!

More work in Moria and a return to the Caribbean

With work on the Causeway stalling, due to a realization I'd positioned the stair way in the wrong place, I decided to find something else to make through the week, until the weekend rolled around again, and it would give me more time to fix up the causeway stairs...

So continuing the Moria theme, the one iconic thing about the Dwarrowdelf, are the pillars... the end of last weekend saw me rough out the main pillar shapes from Styrofoam, thanks to a heads up from 'Celevue' on the rough dimensions he had used for his.

They are made from 5cm thick styrofoam (I actually had 2.5cm thick sheet so had to glue two thicknesses together). The base piece is 9cm x 9cm. The mid piece 7cm x 7cm and the top pillar section is 25cm tall. Cutting these bits out was fairly straight forward. The lengthy bit was then cutting out all the polygon shapes. For this I used 5mm Depron sheet, which once each piece was cut out, I sliced it in half reducing the thickness to about 2.5mm. There are 3 overlaid pieces to each panel, to effect the design... This took me most of the week...

Dwarrowdelf-themed pillars, with orc for scale.

I am the first to admit they are not a perfect copy from the ones in the movie - its such a tricky design to copy perfectly - and so I am going to call these "Dwarrowdelf-themed" pillars! Since this picture was taken I have skim coated over the depron areas, in plaster to fill all the little gaps and give some texture. I have also cut back the corner side edges of the tall pillar sections by 1cm, and finally tonight, base painted them dark grey. A light drybrush with a lighter grey tomorrow should finish them off...

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When the weekend finally rolled around, it was time to go back to the causeway and figure out what to do...

I needed to shift the stair way about 4" to the right as you look at it. I grabbed a long wood saw and sawed the main upright from the back wall, then cut the widened base of each 'leg' from the base board. Thankfully it all came away in one piece. So after a bit of extra measuring, trimming and fitting, I glued it back into where it should go... I also used the time to clad and build up the widened board back and base with foam and poly off-cuts...

Back and base widened and foam/poly clad...

Once the glue has dried, I'll skim it up in plaster again to hide the joins  etc., then build up a rock surface again on the widened back wall section. You can see where I have cut back the yellow expanding foam and skimmed the rock surface previously, to left of back wall...

... and Causeway stair relocated.

So now when Boromir runs out to edge of the broken stairway, there is now nothing below him...

Looking down into the yawning chasm depths...

Back to the sidewall and it was a case of the 'appliance of science', or at least in this case the appliance of large weights, and strips of MDF to fix the warping issue! Once this is dry I'll be able to think about positioning the side wall again with the goblins 'shooting gallery'

fixing the warping...

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So after all this work down in the Black Pit that is Moria, (also known as my garage), it was time to come back up to the sun, and take a jaunt round the Caribbean!

Chris has been playing a new game he got with his pocket money for the Xbox; Assassins Creed 4 - which is set in the Pirate era, so as you can imagine we've been watching Pirates of the Caribbean again, and been looking at our Pirates and Legends of the High Seas stuff.

Having finally had success with water effects, on the Watcher board, I decided to do a full sea board with it, so have repainted one of my table tops in a sea pattern, using a stippling technique, with various blues, turquoises, a little green and dark patches. This I will go over with the Liquitex gel, but will need to order another pot to have sufficient to cover the board...

Caribbean sea, painted, awaiting Liquitex...

Also, having found an easier simpler method to bend balsa strips (just leave them soaking in water to soften them), I returned to a long forgotten project, and finished my jolly boat... a very simple design from a template, I made some time ago. I am just trying to decide if its worth making some oars for it...

Jolly boat brings pirate to shore...

This pirate activity, prompted a game of pirate action... Chris rarely wants to play a simple scenario... I guess that's where a child's imagination comes to the fore...

My Brig was set up, anchored just offshore of the Isle, then the Kraken attacked! ( using Watcher-in-the-water tentacles). Needless to say, my pirate crew were nimbly plucked from the vessel and squashed, pulled apart and drowned, (not necessarily in that order!) and the ship started taking a battering... seeing his doom near at hand, and having seen his captain pulled apart, the quartermaster thought "bugger this for a game of soldiers, I'm offski!" , and nimbly jumped overboard, despite his wooden leg, and landed in the jolly boat. A few other scurvy hands who had been hiding below decks, followed his example, and they rowed to shore while the Kraken remained distracted by destroying the ship...

Having made it ashore, they had just made it inland when they were set upon by cannibal natives, evidenced by blowpipe darts whizzing past their ears!

Having miraculously somehow managed to keep their powder dry, they fired a volley with their pistols and charged! The resulting fracas saw most of the cannibals cut down, with the rest fleeing back to their village, but not before the Quartermaster was murderously clubbed over the head!

And that was where we left our little adventure for the day... but not before I showed Chris this figure from the Northstar kickstarter... as expected, he just about exploded with excitement...

... not sure if I'll be going with the kickstarter, but I am certainly keen to pick this figure up once its available...

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To finish off the weekend, once I had rescued my Brig from the bottom of the depths, I added a little balsa detail to it; the Cat-heads for the anchors and some trim below the rigging on the hull sides... one of these days I'll fully complete it!

I also had a rummage in the 'unfinished projects box' and dug out my other pirate sloop I had half finished a long time ago - I feel more balsa cladding coming on...

Another weekend task was tarting up my old river sections, adding a water ripple surface texture with the Mod Podge I bought earlier... that I left drying over night... boy, has that stuff got an odd smell!

I finally had another look at my Khazad Dum bridge board... I felt I had cut a rather too linear cliff edge (again having simply followed the mission brief in the LOTR scenario books). So I broke out the jigsaw and cut a kind of sharks tooth type pattern along the chasm edges, and then started resurfacing the cliff face using home made plaster cloth; crepe bandage soaked in a mix of runny plaster and PVA glue, till I ran out of crepe... another project to finish off through the week...


As always busy busy...

'Desert' Isle finished!

The weekend saw me finish work on my Desert Isle... OK, its not exactly 'desert' like, it's got a fair bit of grass cover for starters! But you get the idea I am sure, right? ;-)

Anyhoo, I went round the edge of the cliffs and beaches with some Woodland scenics Realistic Water, to add a 'wet look'. Once dry I then mixed some white paint and Water Effects together and went round again adding in wavelets on the beaches, and water splashes against the rocks.

I also painted the top of one of my games tables sea turquoisey blue (It's a Dulux paint, local shade known as 'Otaki Forks')

So there you go, basic Isle, suitable for many settings and scenarios... but you know I couldn't resist dressing it up a bit, so dug out my jungle vegetation and some rocks and let my pirates have a brief explore!

"Arr, there be treasure here mate!"

"So, where's that darned 'X' ?"  !!!

Hope to see it in action, sometime soon! Though I will need to finish off my little jollyboat, so my pirates can at least get from ship to shore! ;-)

Desert Isle - Part 4, WIP - virtually done! And LOTR Battle Report (Link)

Work has continued apace, over the weekend, with several projects on the go, both terrain and figures... the desert isle getting the lion share of time... it was time to paint it up...

First up, I went with an earthy dark brown base tone and painted the rocky areas in this...

I then dry brushed on a mid grey, followed by a lighter grey. I included a little brown paint in both mixes, just to give the grey colours a little 'warmth'...

I then glued on some fine beach sand to the beach areas... with thinned PVA glue....

Then painted this over in a sandy yellow and PVA glue mix to colour it and seal it down...

Once all that was dry I flocked the rest of the isle interior with Mid Green static grass over a green paint/PVA glue mix, with my flock shaker...

So this gives a simple base for our Island themed games, whether Pirates in the Caribbean, or some Isle off the coastline of Middle-Earth, or perhaps some Isle, where strange goings on are occurring in the Victorian world of Empire of the Dead...

I made a whole load of jungle themed terrain and Palm Trees some time ago that will nicely fill the Isle with vegetation... Or if not jungle then regular woods and bushes will do nicely with some suitable ruins or some such...

The final bit to do here is to add some Woodland Scenics realistic water and water effects to have some waves lapping gently up the beaches, and splashing up against the rocks...

I also managed to just about finish the Ford for our Flight to the Ford scenario... and got all my hills re-flocked and ... I got the Nine Mounted Ringwraiths finished painted, just need to varnish and base detail them...

And rather excitedly, I manged to find that WitchKing of Angmar mounted model I was after. Struck a deal with a nice chap from Australia, that I found via the Facebook 'Wargames Buy and Sell' Group. See, Facebook is actually useful for something after all! ;-) So, if I can get him painted up in the next week, that completes the Nine, with the right model to lead them!

A busy weekends modelling was capped with a thrilling but brutal game of LOTR SBG with Chris... he had come up with an idea for a scenario-ed battle, and detailed all the forces. His first battle report is here on his blog ...

LOTR battle report on Chris' blog

Chris wanted to do some of his own battle reports, whilst I concentrate on our LOTR Journey book campaign here.

Thanks for looking, it will give him a thrill to see some blog hits :-)

Desert Isle - Part 3, WIP

Continued work on the Isle last night...

This time adding cat litter, along the rocky coastline...

This is just budget cat litter (Countdown Homebrand here in NZ), of varying grain size... which gives a realistic looking rocky or rubble area... but whilst looking cool - its terrible for standing miniatures on so here I am just using it in rocky areas where they wouldn't be going, if they have any sense!

Please note, no cats have had to cross their legs... our cats go out side and do their business in the veggie plot! ;-)

The Cat litter is glued on by first covering the desired area in thinned PVA glue, quite watery, at roughly a 50/50 mix...  This makes the adhesion with the cat litter much better than straight PVA as the cat litter is porous and absorbs the watery gluey mix. The cat litter is then liberally sprinkled over the glued surface and left to dry.

Once dried I brush off the excess, then add another layer of water/glue mix over the top to seal it down.

You could go on like this adding later after layer if you wish to build up the effect.

So there we are, rocks done...

Next up will be to paint up the cliff faces in sand textured paint, then add a sand layer for the beaches. Then paint up all the rocky surfaces, and finally paint and flock the top...

I am going to leave the top flat as is, that way differing setups of hills, rocks, villages vegetation can be placed as required. It will also make storage easier...

Desert Isle - Part 2, WIP

A quick update... Sunday I managed some spare hobby time, so polyfilla'd  the rocky cliffs of the desert isle... a few pics for your perusal...

I left the books in place, though wrapped them in plastic carrier bags in case I got sloppy with the filla...

Next up, fun with cat litter...

I am now pondering ahead to colour scheme, and whether to paint the cliffs a grey colour, or a more limestone/sandstone colour...

Any geologists out there who know a bit about the Caribbean care to advise?

Cheers
Scott