Saturday 23 March 2013

Ship Ahoy!

So far I have managed to get 5 ships painted, and intend to paint another 5 this afternoon. Here are a couple of snaps of them on the partially finished boards. These ships are 2400th scale, a smaller scale than most people use for this era. However this compact and bijou ness allows me to hide the fact that I know NOTHING about the rigging of ships. yes I know it involves ropes and block and tackles and knots and things like that, but if you asked me to rig a model ship I would be stumped. So this smaller scale lets me avoid the issue. Yippeee!

These ships are about done, bar so tweaking and no doubt some repairs when they go to the club tomorrow. I look forward to being proven wrong. I have tried to keep to what I believe are the correct colours of the period. I tend to think of the ships being a mixture of Yellow and Black. The yellow seems to have been any and all shades of yellow from a light "lemon" to a dark "Ochre, while the Black could actually be a dark grey. I am told that the captain of the ship was responsible for paying for the paint so no universal colour scheme or pattern was established. However I am also informed that the Royal Navy would supply yellow and black paint free of charge, which is why we tend to think of the Nelson Checked wooded walls. That being the case I have one red ship and the others are is different yellows and blacks. As such They look alright. And I'm definitely not going to be too concerned about the colours selected while sticking to what I have been told.
So this afternoon I will have to paint 6 more ships, read the rules make a wind direction counter. (This can be static). In most battles of this period the wind direction and intensity did not change so once set for the battle so it will stay as set.
As you can see in this last Photograph the ships are quite small and given that the effective range of there guns is a mere 6" perhaps I can get away with a smaller board.

That's it for today, thanks for looking have a great weekend (in the sleet snow and rain....and that's just so far this morning). All the best Clint

16 comments:

  1. The project is progressing nicely, Clint!
    The ships look really nice on the board!

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    1. Thanks David. Should get a game tomorrow. Not going to use the boards at the club till they are ready, but an open board will be sufficient to teach the guys the rules.

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  2. They look great Clint, how many ships are you going to be painting up altogether.

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    1. I will paint 10 for the game tomorrow. Which should be enough for now, But I suspect I will double that in the end. Any more than that and we are talking about major Battles.

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  3. Hi Clint,

    1:2400th is a great scale for naval gaming and these look just the ticket. Tumbling Dice produce a nice range of Victorian staem and sail ironclads and ACW ships as well in the same scale.

    Very nice looking indeed - what rules will you be using?

    All the best,

    DC

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    1. Hi David I am going to use BBIB. (Blood Bilge and Iron Balls). For 2 reasons, One Pen and sword (The rules Publishers) sponsor BROADSIDE I'm also a friend of the rules Author. and the second reason (and most important reason) is that I like them.

      These ships are Tumbling Dice (as I am sure you already know) so it makes sense to keep the scale and the boards and use some of their other ranges.

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  4. It's coming together brilliantly Clint,
    The ships are looking great on that board!

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    1. Cheers Dave, Just waiting for the paint was to dry on the next batch. Then they'll need another wash or two and a tidy up, so they are coming along.

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  5. Captains had to pay for their own paint-I had no idea. I would take the free colours if it was my ship.

    Looking very nice and I hope you're having a good game today!

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    1. Just got in, tell you tomorrow about the game, I have a smilie face though.

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  6. Prolific progress and the ships look great.
    There were only three ropes on these ships.

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    1. Thanks Jo. Only 3 ropes..... I'll take your word for it! Actually I might pop down Chatham Dockyard just to make sure!!

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    2. Yep 3, all the rest were lines.

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    3. Oh I see. A technicality. But they were all made in a ropery! (There is still a working Ropery in Chatham Dockyard BTW)

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  7. great stuff..looking impresive so far.

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    1. Cheers Mate, I think it's coming on quite well at least I have not thought about starting again!!! (Maybe I will in a weeks time).

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