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.