Tuesday 19 March 2013

Land ahoy


These two pictures show the next step in creating the boards, adding texture. Still a long way to go, but they are coming along at a pace I am happy with. Let me be blunt and say none of the colours or textures you will see on any pictures will be how the boards are finished. But later I hope there will be a "Rolf Harris" moment when it all comes together at the end. (Well let's hope so!) All the texture is, is "builders sand" (the cheapest sand I can buy) applied through a sieve onto all the areas that I want to add some form of ground texture. The sand is attached using a combination of Resin W (PVA wood glue) water and paint (a mix of ready mixed poster from a toy shop and acrylic for the book discount store "the Works". Using just poster paint would have been easier but the colour would then "bleed" through onto other colours applied over the top. Needless to say wait a few days for it to dry. In this instance I painted it first thing Saturday morning before going to Reject Central for the game.

The next stage (once dry) is to seal the texture. At this stage I have started to add the first indications of colour. This is only an under-painting colour and will not be the finished layer. It does serve to indicate to me where any painting problems will occur further down the line but is so roughly applied that it is just to make sure that the sand used to texture the boards will not shake loose.

As a couple of people wanted me to put a ship in for scale I have done so,. This ship is a 50 gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Line. The smallest Ship of the line I possess It was randomly selected from the selection on my painting table that are primed and that I will start to paint later today ready for a game on Sunday. I hope to have them done in time as It will be the first time most if not all the club players will get to try the rules I like out.  These ships at 1/2400th scale are small the base size is 20mm x 40mm which does make them look insignificant on the boards (see final picture) I have mixed feelings about that. Bigger ships would look more impressive, but is it all about trying to impress people, or showing them what they could do themselves. Alan Abbey of the Milton Hundred Wargames club and author of the rules started playing with those cardboard "Pirate ships" that you had to pop out and assemble. (Yes I have some as well.) But has now managed to acquire some 1/700th scale ships which when painted and rigged will no doubt look fabulous, and is definitely a step forward from the cardboard ones but I quite like the look of the smaller ships, it makes the sea seem more in scale.

That's my news for today.
 Thanks for reading have a great day and I'll blog again in 2 days time.

Best wishes Clint.

22 comments:

  1. It could be just me, but I've got problem seeing first line of text as it is over lapped by pictures.

    Anyways, nice progress, does bring a smile to my face after yesterday's whole day of snowing!

    As for the ships, bigger does look more impressive and I don't know the rules, but I'd imagine now you can at least maneuver a bit so not all games are just dice being thrown?

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  2. I shall fiddle with the edit and see if I can change the overlap for you.

    Well at the smaller scale you don't have to worry about the ships accidently leaving the table due to a miss judgement. Although I know someone will (probably me!) But is you choose to leave the board you still can.

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  3. Madness, total madness, but gloriously so.
    J

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    1. Madness without doubt but what else is wargaming?

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  4. The board is coming along nicely, Clint!...and I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who bought those little card ships! Thankfully I haven't seen them at stores now, so those fleets are as big as they will ever get! ;)
    I'm looking forward to seeing the project completed and the fleets arrayed for battle.
    Hopefully you'll have time for your fishing village...or will it become an armed cove!? ;)

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    1. The fishing village will not be ready by the weekend. But it will be by the show. For the weekend I shall probably stick to two plain boards and run the game with each player controlling just one ship. Once they have a firm grasp of the rules we can build up to bigger battles and multi ship control.

      As for the card ships res assured I know several people who bought them.

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  5. Looks good Clint - very impressive

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    1. It's not there yet Ray, but I have reasonably hi hopes. I have been trying to paint some of the ships today.... struggling.

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  7. Nice wip so far Clint, look forward to seeing this finished. It makes me reminisce about playing Man o'War

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    1. WEll I'm not happy yet, but I can see where it is going and I'm not unhappy. Next few steps should start to see it coming together.

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  8. Ah to relax on a beach like that with crystal clear blue waters lapping on the shore. I'm sure there will not be too much peace and quiet on that stretch when it is finished. Good progress.

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    1. Thanks mate. I shall teach the rules to the club on Sunday, bound to get a few things wrong. But have already asked the author about a couple of things I thought were missing from the rules and He's gonna send me his thoughts.

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  9. The smaller the better as my other half says!

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    1. Then why did she get with a tall fella like you? And I'm sure she does not say that about her shoe collection either!!!

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  10. Even at this stage, the effect you've got is very good. The scale of the ship makes for a much larger playing area too.
    The pace you're doing this is very impressive - good luck with the first game.

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    1. Thanks Joe. Speed wise I am limited by drying time, I'd like to go faster. I only get about 20 mins done on the boards each day. Still at least the weather is OK so I can get it done a little each day.

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  11. Taking shape beautifully Clint.

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    1. Obviously we all want it to come out well, but there are still no guarantees at this stage. And thank you for the comment.

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  12. Very impressive Clint. That's a tremendous amount of work and it helps newbies like me to see this as a W.I.P,

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    1. Thanks Anne. Sometimes being a "Newbie" is actually better as you are not stuck in your ways and are more willing to try things. The biggest barrier to making terrain is convincing yourself that you CAN'T! The short response is that you can.

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